More impressive performances from Great Britain at LEN European Cup

Great Britain’s young synchronised swimmers again proved they can compete on the international stage with more impressive performances in Russia.

On the second day of the LEN European Cup in St Petersburg, the duet of Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe finished sixth out of 21 in the duet technical final.

And the Free Combination team of Ilaria Brandimarte, Millicent Costello, Greta Hampson, Cerys Hughes, Cerys Larsen, Daniella Lloyd, Shortman, Thorpe, Laura Turberville and Victoria Usher claimed fifth spot with their ‘best swim to date’.

They were so close to claiming fourth place but their personal best score of 82.9000 was 0.3333 behind Belarus (82.9333).

Great Britain, who won a silver medal in the Free Combination final at the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series in Paris, were 8.2667 points adrift of the the gold medallists, Russia, who scored a total of 91.1667.

Shortman and Thorpe finished with a score of 82.8513 in the duet technical final.

Very pleased

That left them 12.5255 behind the Russian pair of Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko, who topped the podium with a score of 95.3768.

But Karen Thorpe, Swim England Talent Manager for Synchro, was pleased with the day’s work.

She said: “We were very pleased with the duet result, they swam really well.

“The combination team did their best swim to date and performed all the lifts to a much better standard.

“We were fifth out of the sixth participating nations but very close to Belarus who squeezed into fourth place ahead of us.”

The final day of the competition sees Great Britain take part in the free team final, with Shortman and Thorpe in the Free Duet final.