Heartbreak, sadness, frustration, happiness and joy will be on show at the Tokyo leg of the FINA Synchronised Swimming World Series this week — and that’s just from the Canadians.
Jacqueline Simoneau and Karine Thomas will reprise their free routine from Rio 2016, where they finished seventh, when they compete in the duet at the Synchro Japan Open, which starts on Friday.
“We performed this free routine at the Olympics in Rio. The theme is heartbreak: a relationship goes through the anger, the frustration, the sadness, the happiness and the joy, and we live through these emotions in our routine,” said Simoneau, at Thursday’s press conference.
“We’re looking forward to showing how much we have improved since Rio.
“In our technical routine, the theme is trees. A tree has many more aspects to it than a trunk with branches and leaves — it starts with the roots in the ground. Like a technique, you have to have a good base to do many solid technical elements. As we both have a very good technical base, we’re able to put a lot of difficulty on top of that technical base.”
The Synchro Japan Open is the third stop on the seven-leg FINA Synchronised Swimming World Series, before the bandwagon moves on to Toronto, Canada, starting May 2.
“It’s always a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to perform and compete. We are using this as a stepping-stone to the FINA World Championships, and as an exercise in bettering ourselves at competition,” said Thomas.
Spain’s Ona Carbonell is making her sixth appearance in Japan, this time competing in the solo event.
“I’ll try to do a very emotional, different, innovative choreography. It’s a very difficult routine, non-stop, all the time I have one leg or one arm up — very new skills for me for the solo angle. I want to show a good technique, and to express myself and do a really good artistic routine."
Yukiko Inui, Mai Nakamura and Kana Nakamaki represented the Japanese team at the press conference.
“I would like to perform in a way that shows I have practised lot. Because this event leads to the world championships in July, I would like to give a very energetic performance,” said Nakamaki.
Her teammate, Nakamura, said: “When we were training in Europe we discovered some issues, and I hope we can overcome them at this meet.”
Inui added: "This year the Japan Open is different because it’s also part of the FINA World Series, and because of that we’re getting more attention internationally — I hope to perform very well so that people will have a good impression.”
Miwako Honma, chairman of Japan’s synchronised swimming committee, said: “This year we are pleased to have 20 countries participating, making it the biggest ever Japan Open.
“I believe this is because it became a World Series event, and because we have the Olympics in Tokyo in three years — I think many countries are coming to gain experience.
“For Japan, it is more competitive, and that will be very inspiring and stimulating. Also, this time we have international judges on our panel and this diversity means the Japanese swimmers will be able to get international feedback, which is very helpful.”
The event gets under way on Friday, when the solo medals will be decided. That day’s action also includes the team technical routine.
Saturday sees the mixed duet and free combination medals awarded, while the team and duet events reach their conclusion on Sunday.