| Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon surges to lead the solo preliminaries |
 Bonn, March 12, 2011 – Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon (Rivière-du-Loup, QC) dominated the free solo preliminaries on Saturday at the German Open and leads the field heading to the final on Sunday.Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon was awarded 95.03 points for her free routine and finished ahead of Xue Chen Huang (93.57) and Wen Yan Sun (91.78), both of China. On Friday, the bronze medalist in solo at the 2010 FINA World Cup and 2009 FINA World Aquatic Championships took second place in the technical solo preliminaries, trailing only Xue Chen Huang. Thanks to her strong performance on Saturday, Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon will start the final on top as her cumulative score (technical solo and free solo) of 187.9766 points places her just in front of Xue Chen Huang (187.9284) and Wen Yan Sun, (182.9783). “I swam really well today. I proved to everybody that I can be first”, declared the Canadian soloist. “I hope to do the same tomorrow.” Canada narrowly trails China The Canadian National Team also took part in the technical and free team events on Saturday. In the technical program, the eight-member Canadian team tallied 92.248 points to secure second place, leaving the squad in between China (93.860) and Italy (87.904). Later, in the free program, the team trained by coach Julie Sauvé, had a fierce battle with the Chinese and sit a mere 0.21 points behind with 95.29 points. China finished with 95.50 points, while Japan is third with 92.97 points. “Our performance during the technical team event was shaky”, affirmed the Canadian team captain, Ève Lamoureux. “However, we rolled up our sleeves for the free team event. We told ourselves that we had nothing to lose, and knew we had a beautiful routine. We were way more aggressive in our performance and ended up have much more fun with it”. The cumulative scores (technical and free) after the prelims place China in first with 189.36 points, followed by Canada (187.538) and Italy (177.344). “It’s really encouraging to be right on the heels of the Chinese”, continued Ève Lamoureux. “By getting closer to China, we leave less room for Spain and give ourselves a better shot at a podium finish in our next big international events, like the 2011 FINA World Aquatic Championships.” Sunday is the last day of competition with the solo, duet and team finals all taking place. Competition schedule and full results are available at the Synchro Canada Website at www.synchro.ca. About Synchro Canada Synchro Canada is the national organization governing synchronized swimming in Canada. It represents 10 provincial associations, a territorial association, as well as some 150 clubs and 12,000 members across Canada. A member of FINA, the world’s governing aquatic sports organization, Synchro Canada promotes the quest for excellence by developing the athletes, citizens and ambassadors of the sport of synchronized swimming at every level. Synchro Canada would like to thank its sponsors: Official partner: Epiderma Program partners: Sport Canada, Own The Podium, B2ten, the Centre national multisport-Montréal Official suppliers: Speedo, AdUp, MKI Travel, National Car Rental. For further information, visit Synchro Canada’s Website at www.synchro.ca or follow Synchro Canada on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
- 30 -
Medias note: videos of the Canadian performances availables at: http://synchro.ca/FTP/competitions/GermanOpen/ (password: Gold. Please save the video by right-clicking on it.) For more 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 |
