CHANIA, Greece – Anne-Marie Chouinard and Jacqueline Simoneau, both of Montreal, are second in duet and also helped Canada to third in the team competition after Thursday’s preliminaries at the Comen Cup synchronized swimming competition.

Canada is being represented at the competition by its national 2010 13-15 national team.

In duet, a Russian pair holds the lead with 87.9625 points, Chouinard and Simoneau follow at 83.2730 and Greece is third at 83.1625.  Chouinard and Simoneau joined forces a year ago.

"We’ve been practicing this routine all year so it was nice to get it out there for an international competition," said Chouinard, who turned 14 in April and is five months older than her partner.  "Our synchronization was strong and we communicated the story really well to the audience.  For the final we just need to be more precise with our movements."

In the team prelims, the Russians hold the lead with Greece second and Canada third.  The Canadian swimmers were Chouinard, Simoneau, Mathilde Sauvé and Roxanne Morneau-Carrier, both of Quebec City, Jordan McKenzie and Kali Wong, both of Calgary, Alina Ryssina of Aurora, Ont., and Olivia Zawadiuk of Coquitlam, B.C.

The Canadian routine was about cats and they only started working on it a month ago.

"We couldn’t have asked for a better first performance of this program," said Sauvé, the assistant team captain.  "Our program was very challenging with a lot of rhythm changes but we kept it together from start to finish.  What helped us the most was our team spirit."

Competition continues Friday with the solo preliminaries.  The duet final is Saturday and the team final Sunday.

For information:
Patrick Godbout
Synchro Canada
Communications Manager
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Cell.: (514) 213-9897
Website : www.synchro.ca
Facebook: Synchro Canada
Twitter : www.twitter.com/synchrocanada