ARTISTIC SWIMMING: The Australian duo of Rogers and Thompson have completed their competition in the artistic swimming duet, putting forward a valiant effort but failing to qualify for Wednesday's final.
At the venue which has seen so much success for the green and gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Australian duo of Emily Rogers and Amie Thompson raised the roof in artistic swimming on Tuesday night.
It was the second day of the duet competition, meaning that the Australians had already performed their free routine. In that performance the Aussies put forward a showing for 76.3667, enough for a 21st position heading into the second day.
To book a spot in the final, Rogers and Thompson would need to climb nine positions with their technical routine.
Competing 17th in the field of 22, directly behind the teams from Colombia and Egypt, the Australians dove into the pool to the sounds of Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones.
Perhaps it was the excitement of the Olympic Games, or the rhythm of the 1966 rock song, but the Australians gave it their all in the water leaving nothing on the table.
The duo would finish with a total score 75.5343 from their technical, enough for 151.9010 total and a 20th place finish.
It wasn’t enough to push them through to Wednesday’s final. Nevertheless, the Aussies held their head high.
“It was a really fun swim, the prep was really calm. When we finished and we turned around, the coaches look stoked, that’s the biggest thing in the world for an athlete,” Thompson said.
But here is the remarkable point, it was the first international competition for Rogers and Thompson as a pairing.
In fact, the duo only started working together at the end of 2020 following the retirement of Olympian Rose Stackpole.
“Our head coach only came to us four months ago, and we only came together 10 months ago, so it is a really new duet, a really new routine,” Thompson said.
“We had to pull it together really fast and we’ve just scored the best an Australian duet has scored for a while.
“We are really happy with what we were able to achieve in a short time.”
Taking out pole position as they head into the final of the duet were the pairing from the Russian Olympic Committee followed by China in second and Ukraine in third.
The Australian artistic swimming team continues their competition on Friday, August 7 with the team competition.
Matthew Barnard
