Spain, Japan, and Canada Qualify for 2008 Olympic Synchronized Swimming

The team competition of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Olympic Games Synchronized Swimming Qualification Tournament concluded at the National Aquatic Center on Saturday, April 19. Spain claimed the team title with a score of 98.167 points, followed by Japan (96.501) and Canada (95.334). The top three teams at this tournament are the last three team to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Each team also gets a spot in the duet event. Other teams qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics are Australia, Egypt, Russia, China and the United States (qualified a Team and Duet for the Olympic Games); New Zealand has also qualified as the Oceania representative in the Duet competition.

A total of six teams (Spain, Japan, Canada, Ukraine, Greece and Italy) competed in the team event. Spain, leading in the technical routine, was the second to take the pool in the free routine competition. Four of the five judges gave them 9.8 points and the other one 9.9 for the technical merit, and their lowest score for artistic impression was 9.8. Spain achieved a total score of 98.167 points for the gold medal.

Athens Olympic runners-up Japan, which finished second to Spain in the technical routine, was given a "heavy blow" (as described by the head coach) for an error committed in yesterday's duet competition by Harada Saho and Suzuki Emiko, who finsihed in third place. In the team final today, the Japanese team, led by these two swimmers, achieved a total score of 96.501 points, including a highest technical merit score of 9.6 and a highest artistic impression score of 9.7. They got an Olympic qualifying spot for their second-place finish. After unveiling their brand-new technical routine on Thursday, Canada presented a new free routine and finished third with a score of 95.334.

Results - The 2008 Olympic Games Synchronized Swimming Qualification Tournament