The Canadian duet of Karine Thomas and Jacqueline Simoneau was in action again today at the 2016 Synchro America Open in Riverside, CA, this time in the preliminary round of the Duet Free event.

They performed a powerful and passionate swim of their new free routine, a haunting and penetrating Spanish-style tango performed to “Tore my Heart” by the contemporary artist OONA.  The routine demonstrated an amazing emotional energy throughout as well as improved control of their more difficult technical elements.

“Jacqueline and Karine have an amazing determination to achieve their best performance whenever they jump in the pool,” stated Head Coach Meng Chen.  “They are committed from beginning to end and are not afraid to push their limits physically.”

“On the technical side, I really enjoyed how they nailed their second last figure – a double leg twist plus 8 rounds of continuous spin, with excellent synchronization” she added.  “They also demonstrated their power and athleticism in their last figure that starts with a barracuda.  For the finals on Saturday, we are setting our sights on making small improvements, and we will keep building on this solid performance moving forward toward Rio.”

“We have worked hard to build a strong connection between the swimmers and the music and the audience, and Karine and Jacqueline are really achieving success in communicating this.,” added Chen.  “I am impressed with their maturity in reaching this level of performance with still some good training time left before the Games.”

The Canadians are in third place going into the finals, behind Spain and China.

Other notable results from Canadians participating in the competition are :

Junior Solo:

Silver – Maria Gheta, Quebec Provincial Team

4 – Maude Jobin, Quebec Provincial Team

5 – Joelle Zavitz, Regional Training Centre, ON

Junior Duet:

Silver – Meaghan Ozikizler & Sabrina Barnes, Regional Training Centre, ON

Bronze – Catherine Barrett & Kristin Stremlaw, Regional Training Centre, ON

Senior Solo Technical:

2 – Ioana Gheta, Quebec Provincial Team

5 – Brooke Brimo, Quebec Provincial Team

Free Combination:

Bronze – Quebec Provincial Team

All Canadian competitors will be in action on Saturday as the competition concludes in Riverside with the presentation of Senior Free Duets Final (5pm PDT), Senior Solo Free (6pm PDT) and Junior Teams (7:45pm PDT).

Schedules, start lists and results for the competition are available on the event website.  All events will be webcast LIVE from Riverside.