Young synchro stars consistent at European Juniors

4 Jul 2018

British synchronised swimmers managed to secure a place in the Top 10 of every event they competed in during a tough European Junior Championships.

The championships in Helsinki, Finland saw Russia, win nine of the 10 gold medals up for grabs.

But despite a tough field Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe finished seventh in the duet technical final with a score of 79.6877, less than 10 points behind the Russians, while they were eighth in the duet free after finishing on 81.5000.

Shortman also competed in the solo free final, scoring 83.1667 to finish in sixth position – again within 10 points of the dominant Russians, and she was seventh in the solo technical with a total of 82.4159.

In the free combination, the pair joined with Millicent Costello, Greta Hampson, Cerys Larsen, Daniella Lloyd, Daisy Rushton, Harriette Smith, Abigail Taylor and Torrie Usher to finish sixth on 79.5667 points.

Costello, Hampson, Larsen, Lloyd, Rushton, Smith, Taylor and Usher finished in ninth place in the team technical after scoring 76.5742 – and they were also ninth in the team free event with a total of 76.4667 points.

British Team Manager Karen Thorpe, said: “I was really pleased with the performance from the squad.

“The solo and duet performances received some world-class praise and results. And the team put a last-minute change due to injury behind them to receive a score of 79.5 for the combination event which was excellent.

“We now have a week of home training before we head to Milan for the Junior World Championships training camp and then onto Budapest for the competition.

“It will certainly be a tough competition with more than 40 countries attending but we will be aiming to make the finals and improve on our scores and rankings.

“The junior World Championships will be the forerunner into the senior European Championships in Glasgow next month.”