ALLISON AND RANDALL MEET OLYMPIC SELECTION STANDARD
Olivia Allison and Jenna Randall have met the selection criteria
needed to book Britain's place at the Olympics after a superb
performance at the qualification tournament for synchronised
swimming.
The 2008 Olympic Games Synchronised Swimming Qualification
Tournament at the National Aquatics Centre saw the world's
leading nations descend on Beijing to book their place at
the Olympics.
The British pairing competed in the second round of the Duet
Free event today for the final four places available at the
Beijing Games.
The Olympic duet qualification rules were somewhat complicated
due to the large number of teams involved.
The eight countries and regions that have qualified for the
team event are automatically entered for the Olympic duet
event. The remaining 16 pairs comprise of the top-ranked pair
at the continental championships or continental games and
the best-ranked pairs at this tournament, excluding those
who have already earned Olympic berths.
The top 14 ranked duets after the Technical and the first
round of the Free event at this qualification tournament were
selected for the Olympics.
Only four places were left for the remaining duets, which
were decided by taking the Technical score and that from the
second round of the Free event.
Britain's Allison and Randall were joined by duets from Slovakia,
Austria, Belarus, Dominica, Venezuela, the Czech Republic
and Germany.
They took to the water first in a fully packed National Aquatics
Centre with high hopes after going into the second round as
the top ranked duet.
After a solid performance, the girls maintained their position
at the top of the scoreboard to become one of four duets to
take up the final places for the event at the Olympics later
this year.
With a final score of 87.666, Allison and Randall were a
point clear of their nearest rivals, Katsiaryne Kulpo and
Nastasiya Parfenova of Belarus.
British Synchronised Swimming National Performance Director,
Biz Price, was happy with the performances they gave at the
tournament.
"I'm very, very pleased with how Olivia and Jenna have
done. They have given three solid performances and were leading
throughout today's round," said Price.
"In terms of performance, we were ahead of the other
competing nation's and when you look at the scores from today
it would have given us 14th position on Friday.
"The girls were disappointed to have had to swim in
the second round but being able to swim in front of a full-capacity
crowd in the centre would have been a good experience for
them."
With Britain's place secured the athletes will begin preparing
for the Olympics when they return home.
"Looking ahead, we have another training camp in Spain
which will be a week long and some competitions in the lead
up to the Games," continued Price.
"The scores Olivia and Jenna have been getting have
been in the high 8's, and I will be looking at the programme
and increasing the difficulty of the routines as we take the
next step up."
Allison was pleased with how the tournament went for her
and Randall.
"We had a plan coming into the competition and knew
what we wanted to achieve. We've proven that we are meant
to be here and will work to improve on our performances here,"
said Allison.
"The pool is amazing and it was really good to swim
in front of a large crowd today. When we get back home we'll
look back on this week and revise to routine to make it even
better."
|
