Brits medal at German Open 2010
5 to 7 March 2010 - Bonn
The British Synchronised Swimming team, powered by British Gas returned home from the German Open with two silver and one bronze medal after impressing the judges with their new routines.
This is the first international competition of the season for the Brits and the debut of their new routines which encompass the new technical elements brought in by FINA.formed part of their preparations for the European Youth Championships taking place in July in Tampere, Finland. The GB squad faced international competition from all continents: Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Britain, Germany, Greece, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
The first final and first medal for the team was decided on Saturday afternoon in the Free Combination where they secured bronze for the second successive year.
The Brits used the same concept for the routine as at the 2009 World Championships but with amendments to the choreography. The bronze medal was won with a total of 87.0750 points. Canada's challenging freestyle combnation entertained both judges and spectators and the World bronze medallists won gold with 92.6625 points and Greece took silver after scoring 88.7750.
Canada's ahead of Greece and the UK. The Mayor of Bonn Juergen Nimptsch presented the winners with the "Lion of Bonn", the city's new honorary award.
Commonwealth silver medallist Jenna Randall then took to the water in the Free Solo Final after showing increased speed and technicality she won the silver medal. In her Technical prelim Randall took the highest technical scores after impressing the judges with her explosive height out of the water.
Randall took her place on the podium with a score of 88.8125. Yumi Adachi of Japan took the gold with 90.8125 and Greece won bronze with 87.625 points. British team-mate Lauren Smith, who is aiming to compete at the Commonwealth Games for Scotland, finished seventh and is on track to seal her position on the team for Delhi.
The British Duet of Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison went into this competition with an increased degree of difficulty in their programme. The Olympians have developed their skills since 2008 and in the Free Duet Final they finished just 0.1 points off gold as they won silver with 89.5125 points. Apolline Dreyfuss and Chloe Willhelm of France scored 89.6000. Greece took the final podium place with a score of 88.1375.
The final event for the Brits was the Free Team Final and they performed their War of the Worlds themed routine to cheers from the audience but were pushed out of the medals by the Greek team and the British team finished fourth with 86.4250 points.
After the competition National Performance Director Biz Price commented: “We were on the podium in every event bar the team. We finished only 0.1 behind France in the duet and they went on to win three gold medals throughout the competition. We got the feedback we needed for our new routines which was particularly important with regards to the new technical routines.
“Jenna [Randall] had a really good competition and it is the first time that Jenna and Olivia [Allison] have been on the podium at an international. We did have some major mistakes in the free team prelim but the team made a good recovery in the final and gave a good performance.”
On Sunday afternoon, Canada claimed the team event ahead of France and Greece.
Greece showed their versatility achieving podium places in all events.
The results are as follows:
Combination: 1 Canada (92.6625 points), 2 Greece (88.4750), 3 United Kingdom (87.0750)
Solo: 1 Yumi Adachi, Japan (90,8125 Punkte) 2 Jenna Randall UK (88.8125), 3 Despoina Solomou, Greece (87.8625)
Duet: 1 Apolline Dreyfuss and Chloe Willhelm, France (89.6000 points), 2 Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison, UK (89.5125), 3 Despoina Solomou and Eleni Georgiou, Greece (88.1375)
Team: 1. Canada (91.5375 points), 2 France (88.9125), 3 Greece (87.5625)
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