Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe seal spot at Tokyo Olympic Games

Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe have secured their spot at their first-ever Olympic Games.

The duet finished seventh in the final of the Olympic qualification event held in Barcelona, with the top nine guaranteed at the rearranged Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Their Spanish and Japanese Flamenco mix routine choreographed to a modern version of Flamenco music by Timmy Trumpet and Yuki Hayashi earned a score of 85.7332 in the free routine final.

That, added to their technical routine score of 85.2230, gave them a total of 170.9562 – more than five points clear of the 10th-placed team which missed out on qualification.

The free final performance was also an improvement on their preliminary round score by 0.5 points

Shortman and Thorpe had qualified for the free final also in seventh place following the preliminary round.

Their technical performance earned them sixth spot and when added to their free routine, they finished on 170.4562 – only 0.1064 adrift of the sixth-placed Israeli duet.

Karen Thorpe, Swim England artistic swimming manager, said: “They did a great job in the preliminary round.

“They were a bit nervous as they had to wait for 21 routines before their turn but they held their nerve and did a good swim.

“They were pleased to finish sixth, although a bit disappointed to have not scored slightly more to be in sixth place overall.”

Now all sights are set on an appearance at the Olympic Games, when a total of 22 teams will compete in the artistic swimming duet competition in Tokyo between Monday 2 August and Wednesday 4 August.