The athlete from Montreal sits 5th in solo tech and 7th in duet tech with her partner Claudia Holzner after today’s preliminary rounds

Jacqueline Simoneau, the 20-year old from Montreal, began the Synchronized swimming competition at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary with two strong performances. The first part of the competition was the Solo Technical Prelims. Simoneau, performing her routine to the haunting music of The Red Violin Soundtrack, scored 89.2331 and is sitting 5th, behind Svetlana Kolesnichenko of Russia in first, Ona Carbonell of Spain in second and Yukiko Inui of Japan in third. She is just 1.33 points behind Anna Voloshyna of Ukraine, who sits 4th. Only the first 12 athletes from the field of 32 competitors have qualified to swim the Solo Technical Finals tomorrow, July 15.

Simoneau was very satisfied with today’s performance. “Not only me, but my coach as well. She gave me a great opportunity and circumstances during the preparation.”

Photos Liz Corman

Later in the day, Simoneau joined her partner Claudia Holzner, 23 (Calgary, AB) in the Duet Technical Prelims. The newly combined team were competing with 43 other duets and swam to a strong 7th place. In first are Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Alexandra Patskevich from Russia, while the Chinese twins Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen are second, followed by the Ukrainian pair of Anna Voloshyna and Yelyzaveta Yakhno. The Canadians have qualified to swim in the Duet Technical Finals on Sunday, July 16.

“I think we should be very proud, we have been together for a short period of time. It’s only the second time we are competing together in an international competition so it definitely was a good start,” said Holzner.

What’s happening tomorrow, July 15, in Budapest

Following her great swim in today’s prelims, Jacqueline Simoneau will compete in the Solo Technical Finals tomorrow morning, July 15. The event begins at 11:00 AM local time (5:00 am EDT) and Simoneau will be the 12th and last competitor to go. That event will be featured on CBC’s live stream coverage beginning at 4:50 am (EDT) on cbc.ca/sports.

Also on Saturday, Isabelle Blanchet-Rampling, 31, and Robert Prévost, 37, both from Montreal, QC., will begin their Mixed Duet competition with the Duet Tech preliminary round. They will use the music of the World’s Greatest Battle Music Ever: Legend to portray Danté, the fallen angel and the struggle between angels and demons. They are the 2nd duet to swim in the field of 10. That event gets underway at 7:00 pm local time (1:00 pm EDT).

For all Canadian schedules, start lists, results and links to live stream, please visit the event page on synchro.ca.

For additional information about World Championships, visit FINA’s website.