SYNCHRO GIRLS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS
Britain's young synchronised swimmers put in an impressive
performance at the European Champions Cup in Rome last weekend
to fulfil their aim of reaching the finals in their events.
The British duet of Jenna Randall (18) and Olivia Allison
(17) secured their place in the final after finishing 17th
in the Duet Free Routine with a score of 86.700 and 16th in
the Duet Technical Routine with a score of 85.500.
The girls looked impressive in the Duet Free Final and finished
15th with a total of 85.700 achieving scores of 42.700 for
technical merit and 43.000 for artistic impression.
The duet has been training intensively at the centre in Aldershot
and their hard work looks to be paying off, with their performance
placing them higher than close rivals the Austrians and gaining
higher scores than at the World Championships.
British Synchronised Swimming National Performance Director
Biz Price was pleased with the performances at the weekend
and is looking to the next step in the development of the
squad in the preparation for London 2012 and Beijing 2008.
"We had a really good weekend, it was extremely successful
for all of us," she said. "It is the first time
the duet has made it to an international senior final and
that is down to the intensive hard work we have put in.
"It also shows the improvement the girls have made since
the start of the year, in such a short period of time we have
come a long way. We have set ourselves some tough goals. This
is going to mean hard work for the girls but I believe that
they can succeed."
"In the final we closed the gap significantly on some
of the stronger nations - the likes of France and Belarus.
I think the more exposure we give the girls to the international
scene the better and they are taking the events in their stride."
In the solo event, Jenna Randall gave an accomplished display
of her skills and finished an impressive 8th in the Solo Free
Final.
Judges awarded Randall's Solo Free Routine a technical merit
score of 43.000 and an artistic impression total of 43.600
giving her an overall mark of 86.600.
In the prelims, Randall scored consistently high marks, achieving
her second interntional score of nine in the prelims; overall
she scored 85.300 in the Solo Free and 86.000 in the Solo
Technical.
Price, who has been working with the girls since the start
of the year, was pleased with Randall's performance.
"Jenna's solo performance went very well, she showed
great dynamic height and that promises success in the future.
The judges are recognising the difficulty included in our
routines and how we are executing them and that it good news.
"We have been focusing on the duets performance as the
solo routine is not included in Olympic competition so it
was good to see Jenna's strong solo performance."
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