Canadian Duet fourth at FINA Trophy

Olympic veteran Marie-Pier Boudreau Gagnon (Riviere-du-Loup, QC) and new partner Chloe Isaac (Montreal, QC) finished fourth in the duet event in their first international competition as Canada’s new duet.

“They had a terrific swim, we are very happy,” said Canadian coach Julie Sauve. “This was a good place to introduce the world to our new duet.”

The pair executed a near flawless routine to earn a score of 47.833 for fourth.

“It’s been a really easy transition,” said Boudreau-Gagnon. “I think we compliment each other very well and we have a similar style.”

More impressive was the fact Canada beat Japan who also introduced the new duet of Mariko Sakai and Yukiko Inui who finished with a score of 47.333.

“This bodes very well for the future,” said Sauve. “It’s been a long time since we beat the Japanese. This shows a lot of promise for the upcoming World Championships.”

The home crowd was thrilled to see Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes finish first with a score of 49.500 breaking the Russians longtime hold on first. With a score of 48.500 the Chinese duet of twin sisters Wenwen Jiang and Tingting Jiang edged out Russia’s new pairing of Anzhelika Timanina and Daria Korobova who finished third with 48.333.

The opening day of competition also featured the “Thematic Duet”, a new event created for this competition. The idea of this routine is to present a choreography inspired in the culture of the host country. Swimmers are also allowed to wear additional accessories during their presentation and on this day teams took full advantage.

Great Britain’s duet of Olivia Allison and Jenna Randall, walked in wearing flamenco shoes and went on to perform their routine while still wearing the shoes. The Spanish duet wore a swimsuit that covered one leg, while Canada’s Elise Marcotte (Ancienne-Lorette, QC) and Tracy Little (Montreal, QC) covered both legs and wore a decorative headpiece depicting the painting “La Diva” by Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

“I think it was great to see everyone perform to the same theme and then see how they interpreted it,” said Little. “We were really happy with our swim and felt we were very artistic.”

The Spanish duet picked up its second gold of the day finishing first in the thematic duet with a score of 49.500. The Chinese were second with 48.500 and Japan third with 48.000. The Russian’s introduced yet another duet, Aleksandra Patskevich and Svetlana Ponkratova, who finished fourth with a score of 47.500. Canada finished fifth in the thematic duet with a score of 47.333.

“I think Tracy and Elise swam very well even though the score doesn’t reflect that,” said Sauve. “I love the idea of the thematic duet, but I think they could make it even more artistic.”

Canada will be back in action Saturday as the team event takes place.

Teams competing at the Trophy include Canada, Russia, Spain, Japan, China, Egypt, Great Britain and Italy.

The FINA trophy will be streamed live at the FINA website at www.fina.org. The schedule is as follows: Dec 6 - 12:00 ET - 1:00 pm ET

Competing for Canada will be

Cassidy Beaver Nicol (BC)

Marie-Pier Boudreau Gagnon (QC)

Camille Bowness (QC)

Jo Annie-Fortin (QC)
Chloe Isaac (QC)

Eve Lamoureux (QC)

Tracy Little (QC)
Alison McKenny (AB)
Laura McClemont (ON)

Elise Marcotte (QC)
Karine Thomas (QC)

Valérie Welsh (QC)