Boudreau-Gagnon and Rampling Sit Sixth after Olympic Duet Tech

August 18, 2008, BEIJING: It was a strong start to the Olympic synchronized swimming competition for the Canadian duo of Isabelle Rampling (Burlington, Ont.) and Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon (Riviere-du-Loup, Que.). After today’s solid performance of their duet technical routine, the pair sits in sixth position at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

"Our goal was to come in, have the ultimate performance and get into finals,” says Rampling. “In the ready room, we were cool, calm and collected, and ready to perform our best. The energy from the crowd gave us that extra boost as we dove in."

The Canadian pair of three years earned a score of 47.417, a two-tenth of a point improvement on their technical score at the Olympic Qualifying event earlier this year. The score from their technical routine swim will be added to tomorrow’s free routine score to determine their ranking heading into the duet finals later this week.

The top spot after the technical routine is held by the defending Olympic duet champions Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova of Russia, with 49.334 points. Spain’s Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes sit in second place, half a point behind the leaders, while the Japanese duet of Saho Harada and Emiko Suzuki are third with 48.250 points. Chinese twins Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting are fourth (48.084) and Christina Jones and Andrea Nott of the USA claim fifth spot with 47.750 points.

The Canadian duet and their coaches Denise Sauvé and Julie Sauvé return to the pool tomorrow in the hopes of moving up in the rankings after performing their popular dragon-themed duet free program.

Synchro Canada is the national governing body for the sport of synchronized swimming in Canada. We support the development of synchro athletes, officials and coaches at all levels. Speedo and Eco-Fusion are proud sponsor of Canada’s national synchro teams.

For more information:
Claire Carver-Dias
Synchro Canada
Marketing and Communications
416.788.9367
communications@synchro.ca

In Beijing:
Martin Richard
Director of Communications
Swimming Canada
Beijing Mobile +86 150 0772 4307
mrichard@swimming.ca