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Montreal 2009, Day 3: Canada crowned new champion
A new champion, the team from Canada, was crowned at the 4th FINA Synchronised Swimming World Trophy held at Montreal's Olympic Park Sports Center, the venue of the 1976 Olympic Games. Canada won the Highlight Routine and Thematic Duet on Friday and finished first in the Thematic Team event last evening. The squad from the host federation collected enough points to win the 4th FINA World Trophy this evening following their third place finish in the Combination Team routine in the fifth and final event of the programme. Canada ranked fourth in the third edition of this competition held in Spain and won by the host nation last year.
The total score accumulated during the five events of the competition allowed Canada to climb on the top of the podium ahead of Russia. The cumulative score for Canada was 491.666 points, followed by Russia with 491.333 points, and Spain with 485.666 points. Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon (CAN) and Chloe Isaac (CAN) won the Thematic Duet event and Boudreau-Gagnon (CAN) finished second to the FINA World Champion Natalia Ischenko (RUS) in the solo event. The Canadian team received their first 10.0 score since the 1992 Olympics in Saturday's Thematic Team Routine. Another milestone for the Canadian squad was a finish ahead of the powerful Russia team, the first time this has occurred since the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Montreal 2009, Day 2: Russia wins solo but Canada remains in the lead
The host federation returned to Montreal's Olympic Park Sports Center, the venue of the 1976 Olympic Games, at the top of the scoring tables following the first evening of competition at the 4th FINA Synchronised Swimming World Trophy. Saturday night is "Hockey Night in Canada" but ironically this evening's performances did not include any references or elements drawn from Canada's national pastime. Hockey jerseys, sticks, pucks and the NHL buzzer were the signature accessories in Friday evening's winning performances by the duet and team squads from Canada. The Canadian squad swam to first place in last night's Highlights and Thematic Routines and leads in the scoring for the FINA Trophy after just two events.
Tonight the venue sound system blared the Black Eyed Peas hit song "A Good Night" featuring these lively lyrics: "I have a feeling, I have a feeling that tonight is going to be a good night, a good, good night" perhaps giving even further inspiration to the Canadian team. Tonight the Canadians would face a stiff challenge from a Russian World Champion and the 2008 Olympic Gold Medallists in this evening's Free Solo and Thematic Team routines.
Montreal 2009, Day 1: Canada leads after two events
The world's best synchronized swimmers returned to Montreal to compete in the 4th edition of the FINA Synchronised Swimming World Trophy. The national federations of Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and United States will perform five events: “Synchro Highlight Routine”, “Thematic Duet”, “Solo”, “Thematic Team” and “Combination. In order to enhance the spectacular routines in synchronised swimming, the FINA Synchro World Trophy has different rules than the ones used at Olympic Games or World Championships. The main differences relate with the possibility of wearing accessories, to the judgement of the deck movements, or to the length of the programmes.
Just four summers ago Montreal hosted the very successful 2005 FINA World Championships. Just prior to the competition Montreal's Mayor Gerald Tremblay was presented with the FINA Order in recognition of his outstanding support for the organisation of the 2005 FINA World Championships. This competition is being held at the aquatics venue of the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.
Olympic champion Liu Zige to shine in Asian swimming championships
Olympic champion Liu Zige and world champion Zhang Lin will lead a group of Chinese elite swimmers at the Asian Swimming Championships which ran through Nov. 21-28.
The Championships, which include swimming, synchronised swimming and diving, are being held by China Swimming Association (CSA), Guangdong Provincial Sports Administration and People's Municipal Government of Foshan, under the auspices of the Asia Swimming Federation (AASF).
Junya Koga, "Swimmer of the Year" in Japan
The national annual meeting of Japan Swimming Federation for November was held in Tokyo on November 22. On that occasion the “Swimmer of the year” award was announced: Junya Koga, men’s 100m backstroke gold medallist at the 13th FINA World Championships Rome 2009.
Also in Japan, Kousuke Kitajima, gold medallist in the men’s 100m and 200m breaststroke both in the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olymopics, came back to the swimming pool after the Beijing Olympic Games. He enjoyably swam at the Tokyo Swimming Center Invitational Meet, which was held on November 21-23, 2009.
Organisers receive $500,000 in funding from Heritage Canada for 6th FINA World OWS Champs
Swimming Canada and Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean inc., greeted with joy and great satisfaction the $500,000 contribution from Heritage Canada to help organise the 6th FINA World Open Water Swimming championships (Roberval 2010) set for July 15-23, 2010 in Roberval, Que. The announcement was made on November 20, 2009 at a news conference by the Honourable Denis Lebel (Roberval-Lac St-Jean), federal Minister of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec) for the Honourable Gary Lunn (Saanich-Gulf Islands) Minister of State (Sport).
Pinheiros wins the 13-14 years old Brazilian Championship
The Esporte Clube Pinheiros won the Brazilian 13-14 years old Swimming Championship (the Maurício Bekken Trophy). The club scored 298.5 points and conquered its seventh title in this event. Corinthians finished the event in the second position with 257.5 points and Botafogo was third with 230 points. Overall, 28 new event records were set in this competition. The championship was held at the Álvares Cabral club in the city of Vitória.
Swimming Canada announces new Coaching Mentoring Initiative
A new coaching development program that recognizes the considerable value of the mentoring process in facilitating a coach’s development was announced on Nov. 17, 2009 by Swimming Canada.
“Coach mentoring is seen as a critical component of the coach’s developmental pathway,” said Ken Radford, Technical Director for Swimming Canada. “To this end, Swimming Canada has secured funds to support mentorship opportunities.”
How synchro has changed
Over the last decade, a huge metamorphosis has taken place within synchronised swimming. This has occurred for three main reasons: the sport has become increasingly popular worldwide – about 100 nations have regular programmes in this discipline; the performances have dramatically changed, as new figures and movements, and a new event - the combination - have made synchro more spectacular; and, last but not least, the top-three hierarchy at the three major events – Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cups – has significantly evolved. We could say that all these three items are deeply connected – more participation leads to more interest, more interest leads to more stars - but let us take a look into the last topic and recall the evolution since 1973; the date on which the first edition of the FINA World Championships was launched - the first major competition for synchronised swimmers worldwide.
Brenda Villa (USA) - The taste for gold
Her resume happens to break the traditional one page rule, but that is what happens when you have played in three Olympic Games, and concluding this past August in Rome, Italy, six FINA World Championships. She is Brenda Villa of USA Water Polo and these latest World Championships were just another for Villa where she ended up wearing the Gold.
Anyone that has followed women’s water polo over the last decade knows Brenda Villa all too well. The Stanford grad from the largely Hispanic community of Commerce, California grew up playing with the boys, and hit the National Team scene exactly at the right time. Coming on board in the late 90s, Villa was able to step into a new world for the sport that saw inclusion in the Olympic Games and an increased presence in women’s university action.
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