ESP, CAN and JPN on the last bus to Olympics
(Photo credit: Sportsphoto.cn)

(Beijing, April 19) -- The team competition of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Olympic Games Synchronized Swimming Qualification Tournament concluded at National Aquatics Center Saturday afternoon. Spain claimed the title with a score of 98.167 points, followed by Japan and Canada with 96.501 and 95.334, respectively. According to FINA rules, the top three teams from this tournament will take the last three team tickets to the Beijing Olympic Games. In addition, each team will get a ticket to the duet event as well.

Six teams, namely Spain, Japan, Canada, Ukraine, Greece and Italy, competed in the team event.

With the lead going into the free routine, the Spanish team presented a beautifully choreographed program to dynamic African music. Four of the five judges awarded the eight women with scores of 9.8, while the remaining judge gave them a 9.9 for technical merit. Their lowest score for artistic impression was a 9.8. With a total score of 98.167 points, Spain won the gold medal.

Athens Olympic runners-up Japan, who had failed to bring out their best in the technical routine and finished second to Spain, achieved a total score of 96.501 points in the free routine for the silver. Led by Harada Saho and Suzuki Emiko, the girls had errors in both lifting and synchronization and earned 9.6 as their highest technical merit score and 9.7 as their highest artistic impression score.

Bronze medalists Canada presented a new free routine as a follow-up to their brand-new technical routine on Thursday. In their free routine, which had a theme of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, eight Canadian fairies vividly performed interpretations of the animal signs, impressing both spectators and judges alike. They finished third with 95.334 points for the last ticket to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games after Spain and Japan.