The Spanish duet synchronized swimmers Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes, who topped the standings of 32 duets in Wednesday's technical routine, said that they are eyeing a medal at the Olympics.
Mengual, a 31-year-old veteran swimmer and partner Fuentes dazzled the crowd with seasoned performance, scoring 97.334 points and holding off the Japanese duet Saho Harada and Emiko Suzuki by 0.75 point.
The duet technical routine was the first batch of competitions in a five-day Olympic qualification tournament at the Olympic flagship venue the Water Cube. Chinese twins Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen followed in the third place with 95.5 points.
The final standings of the duet competition will be finalized with half of the scores in technical routine and half scores in free routines on Friday and Sunday.
"Our score is not bad, but there is of course room for further improvement," Mengual said, adding that she had been suffering a shoulder injury, but that did not really affect her swim.
The veteran swimmer has led Spain to win two Team medals at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, a bronze in the Team Technical and a silver in the Team Free.
The Spanish sychronettes are set to sparkle at the tournament in the absence of the reigning Russian team, who have already qualified for the Olympics.
"Our goal for this competition is the gold medal. However, we are looking forward for a medal at the Olympics," Mengual said.
The powerful Russian synchro swimmers were multiple world champions and the gold medallists at the Sydney and Athens Olympics.
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2008)