“We came here to compete our best and we’re quite happy,” said Isabelle Rampling after winning the Silver Medal in the Duet category this morning alongside partner Marie-Pier Boudreau Gagnon, “this was an amazing experience and we are looking forward to our next competition.” So she should be, as their performance at the Pan Am Games has shown marked improvement from March’s FINA World Championships in a number of areas, “this is the first time that our Duet finished with 95 points and we are very happy about it,” she adds.
American swimmers Christina Jones and Andrea Nott completed today’s Free Routine with a score of 48.250 for a total of 95.500, while our athletes were awarded 47.917 for a total of 95.084, leaving them only 0.416 points behind the Americans. The Brazilian pair of Caroline Hildebrandt and Lara Teixeira won the Bronze finishing the Free Routine with a score of 45.583 for 90.667 overall.
While the American duo will claim the single Olympic berth available today, our Duet is expected to qualify early next year and will meet them in Beijing next August regardless. By the time the Olympics arrive they will have had an entire year to train to make up the four tenths of a point that separated them from the Pan American Gold.
“Our performance here at the Pan Ams will give us more energy and motivation to go back and train really hard,” said Marie-Pier after the Duet competition was finished, “we received the highest score on the artistic [half of the scoring] and we are stoked about it!”
Synchro Canada’s Duet has already upped Canada’s Medal Count with today’s silver, and the National A Team still has a shot to add a Gold tomorrow. They lucked out and drew the final spot of the Team Free event, and they will be looking to close out the Synchro portion of the Games with another podium performance
