Around 210 athletes from 26 nations will participate in the 11th FINA World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championships, taking place in St. Petersburg (RUS) from July 9-13, 2008. This is the third time this event is held in Russia, after the editions of 1997 also in St. Petersburg and 2004 in Moscow.
At home, the Russian swimmers will try to maintain their domination in the discipline, after their successful participation in the 2006 Championships in Guangzhou (CHN), where they only lost the title in the solo event to China’s Huang Xuechen. Number one in the world hierarchy, Russia will certainly send a talented group of athletes to perform at home – many of the confirmed stars at the senior level (for example, world champion Natalia Ishchenko or the duet Olympic and world gold medallist formed by Anastasia Ermakova and Anastasia Davydova) also made their debut at the World Junior Championships.
Other traditional strong countries in the discipline, such as Spain, Japan, Canada, USA, Italy or Greece will also send their best representatives to the competition, the last major FINA event before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The FINA World Junior Synchronised Swimming World Championships are contested by athletes aged between 15 and 18 years old and are held every two years. Previous editions took place in: Cali (COL, 1989 and 1999), Salerno (ITA, 1991), Leeds (GBR, 1993), Bonn (GER, 1995), St. Petersburg (RUS, 1997), Seattle (USA, 2001), Montreal (CAN, 2002), Moscow (RUS, 2004) and Guangzhou (CHN, 2006).