British Synchronised Swimming took an important step on the road to 2012 with its national trials in Aldershot at the weekend.
More than 50 athletes took part in the trials from 12th –13th May with the aim of achieving selection to British senior and junior squads.
Senior athletes had to perform six technical team elements individually in front of a panel of judges. The elements were selected from a FINA list and form six of the movements that are essential if they are to be successful as part of a team.
The top nine athletes have been invited to form part of the national senior squad alongside Jenna Randall, Olivia Allison and Lauren Smith – who are already training full time in Aldershot.
Five athletes invited onto the senior team are also eligible for junior selection, and they are joined by a further five athletes who will prepare for the European Junior Championships at a five-week camp in the summer.
Having joined in January British Synchronised Swimming National Performance Director Biz Price is delighted to finally have two teams in place to work towards 2012, but she is realistic about the task that lies ahead.
“I think the whole weekend went very well,” she said. “I have had positive feedback about the format of the day from athletes and judges. Everything flowed smoothly and it was great to see so many girls come down and see the facility at Aldershot.”
“If we compare our athletes to many other synchro nations our standard is quite low, but this was expected. Our aim is to have a team ready to work towards medals in London 2012 and this is the first step. I think it has been an encouraging first step and I am really happy having five of our junior girls making it onto the senior squad also.”
“The future for the sport looks good but I am expecting for it to take a while for the team to improve to the level I want them to be at. Within the first year the team of coaches will take them back to basics and we will be working towards improvement, not competitions.”
All athletes selected to the senior squad have been invited to train at Aldershot and Price is excited about the benefits that training as a team will bring.
“Having the rest of the team centralised is only going to help them improve,” she added. “It is a great opportunity for us to gain in confidence and be ready for future competitions.”
“The junior squad will be taking part in a camp towards the end of June and will train alongside the senior squad, which will help them to see what they can aspire to. Also having the girls training in Aldershot intensively means I can monitor their progress.”
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For more information contact ASA Media Assistant Gemma Field on 01509 632262, 07917 726431 or email gemma.field@swimming.org
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association) British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
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