SYNCHRO SWIMMING: The Australian synchronised swimming Team will be out to secure qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics at the World Championships in Kazan, Russia, this weekend.
Australia will face tough competition against New Zealand to claim the Oceania qualification spot for Rio in both the team technical and free events, as well as the duet technical and free.
The Australian Team includes eight swimmers and two named reserves. Captain Bianca Hammett will is aiming to represent Australia at her second Olympics, after she made her Games debut at London 2012. She was also a reserve for the Beijing 2008 Team.
The Queenslander has also been chosen as the flag bearer for the Australian Aquatics Team at the Opening Ceremony of these World Championships.
The National Team is led by Canada’s Leslie Sproule, a coach with 35 years experience including three Olympic Games.
With an average age of just 19, it is a very young national team with three athletes still at high school, and the others are studying at university in courses from commerce, engineering, sports science, arts and law. Most have needed to extend their educational year in 2015 in order to fit in the near full-time training over recent months, in order to prepare for the World Championships. While some have needed to cut short training camps in order to sit their exams.
Several of the team are dual nationals and began their synchro training overseas in countries such as Canada, Singapore, UK, Hong Kong and Aruba. Despite their youth, most of the team have already represented Australia in international competitions, both in age groups and the senior team.
Hammett will be paired with Nikita Pablo for both the Technical and Free Duets.
The Australian Team will present the technical routine to the theme of Cirque du soleil - Kooza. This combines two circus traditions - acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The music is ‘Royaume’ from the show.
The free team will present to the theme of the small but lethal, red-back spider. The music for this performance is a combination of excerpts from Lord of the Dance, Lion King, Dracula, and a Jacques Cousteau soundtrack.
The Australian technical duet is performing to a theme of Australian Animals with music from Hilight Tribe (Giovanni Limboland) which is a modern take (electro-mix) on the Aboriginal didgeridoo. While the free duet is a performance of an Excerpt from Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 by Franz Liszt.
The synchronised swimming competition kicks off on Saturday 25 July and runs until Saturday August 1.
Technical Team:
Bianca Hammett (Captain, 24, Qld)
Cristina Sheehan (16, Qld)
Emily Rogers (17, Vic)
Jemma Singleton (17, Vic)
Jo-Ann Lim (17, Qld)
Amie Thompson (19, WA/NSW)
Danielle Kettlewell (22, WA)
Nikita Pablo (20, Qld)
Reserves: Deborah Tsai (20, WA), Danielle ten Vaanholt (20, WA)
Free Team:
Bianca Hammett (Captain, 24, Qld)
Emily Rogers (17, Vic)
Jemma Singleton (17, Vic)
Amie Thompson (19, WA/NSW)
Danielle ten Vaanholt (20, WA)
Nikita Pablo (20, Qld)
Deborah Tsai (20, WA)
Danielle Kettlewell (22, WA)
Reserves; Cristina Sheehan (16, Qld), Hannah Cross (18, Vic)
Technical and Free Duet:
Bianca Hammett (24, Qld) and Nikita Pablo (20, Qld)
AOC
