Canada wins the silver medal in team combo at Spain Open

MADRID – Canada won the silver medal on Saturday in the team combo event at the 2012 Spain Open synchronized swimming competition. Spain, which is fielding its Olympic squad at this competition, took the gold with 96.390 points, the Canadians were second at 93.220 and a Spanish Club team Real Canoe was third at 81.430. Swimming for Canada were Janelle Ball (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC), Camille Bowness (Montréal, QC), Annabelle Frappier (Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC), Sandy Gill (Coquitlam, B.C.), Emilia Kopcik (Surrey, B.C.), Rachel Kowalski (Kitchener, ON), Katie MacLeod (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC), Rebecca Maule (Guelph, ON), Lisa Mikelberg (Montréal, QC), and Marie-Lou Morin (Montréal, QC).

The Canadians performed to a medley of music by Queen.

‘’It’s a real crowd pleaser and we nailed every single one of our moves today,’’ said Kopcik, the team combo captain. ‘’It’s a very high intensity number that requires a lot of power and a lot of endurance with the amount of time we spend underwater. There’s not another routine like it in the world.’’

In the team competition, Canada remained second after the Friday’s technical program and Saturday’s free team preliminary event. Spain leads with 191.759 points followed by the Canadians at 180.1325 and Brazil at 168.2430.

The Canadian swimmers were Bowness, Frappier, Gill, Kopcik, Maule, Mikelberg, Morin and Marie Rondeau (Québec, QC). They performed a western-themed routine.

‘’It was super,’’ said Morin, the team captain. ‘’We started strong and impressed the judges with our acrobatic moves. The big challenge is not showing the energy we our dispensing during the performance. We hope we can clean up some of the little errors we made today for the final.’’

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For information:
Patrick Godbout
Synchro Canada
Communications Manager
Email: patrick@synchro.ca Cell.: (514) 213-9897
Website : www.synchro.ca
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