DUET SECURES FINAL SPOT AFTER STRONG START
Britain's Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison have booked their
spots in the final of the Duet Free Routine after once again
showing their true potential on an international stage.
The first event for the British Champions was the Free routine
where they showcased their new programme. Randall and Allison
have been working on this routine for just over six months
and after a series of amendments the girls were ready for
the European stage.
They showed good synchronisation throughout the routine to
secure high eights and took ninth place with a total of 86.400
points.
Randall and Allison debuted their new technical routine at
the British Championships in December. National Performance
Director Biz Price increased the level of difficulty in this
routine to make the girls step up to the next level.
They took to the water with confidence in the second half
of the duet programme. The pair showed improved power and
propulsion through the water and with the added height on
their boosts managed to take more high eights to score 86.500
points.
They booked their place in the final after securing ninth
place overall with a total of 86.450 points and look set to
improve their European placing.
"It felt good today, but there were a couple of errors
that we know we can correct," Randall said. "We
are pleased with the scores but we know we need to work harder
to get the higher marks.
"The routines are quite new for us and it normally takes
a duet about two years to perfect their programme, so at this
stage we are happy with the progress."
British Synchro is at the beginning of a development process
in time for the London 2012 Olympics and centralised their
athletes just over a year ago to ensure they're competing
with the very elite of the sport in four years time.
Randall and Allison were the first to begin training as full
time athletes and as part of their development they have become
used to learning from international judges.
The duet made their first senior international debut a year
ago at the World Championships and since then have continued
to make a name for themselves on the international circuit
and for Allison the international exposure has been invaluable.
"After every competition we get feedback from international
judges and from that we adapt our routines accordingly,"
Allison said. "So this means our routines go to the next
level at each new competition.
"Our new routines are at a completely different level
to anything we were used to. When we first started with Biz
it was really hard to get used to the new levels of difficulty
and now we are used to them we increase the levels again.
Now we can generally pick up the new elements quite quickly."
Allison (18) is one of the youngest athletes on the senior
international circuit and after facing up to major international
competitions she takes nerves in her stride.
"We have been doing more international competitions
than we ever have done and to start with nerves used to creep
in, but now we don't get nervous it is more excitement,"
she said. "I look forward to doing the best swim possible.
"I try to focus nerves and use them to my advantage.
I have a saying that I think sums this up perfectly and it
is make your butterflies fly together, which means if they
are working in unison they can help you with your swim.
"Our next challenge is the Olympic qualification event
in Beijing and I am really looking forward to it. It will
be like nothing we have ever been to before and I think it
will be a great experience for us."
Spain's Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes continued their
dominance of the Duet event and finished in the top spot overall
to put themselves in a strong place for the final. They scored
97.350 overall.
Italy's Beatrice Adelizzi and Giulia Lapi took second spot
with 93.900 points to leave Ukraine to take the third spot
with 93.150.
The final of the Duet event takes place on 17th March.
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