Swim England Artistic Swimming
Highs and lows as Shortman and Thorpe narrowly miss out on medal
June 19, 2019Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe endured highs and lows as they opened their European Junior Artistic (Synchronised) Swimming Championships campaign in Prague.
The Olympic hopefuls, competing in their final junior European championships, agonisingly missed out on a medal in the duet technical final.
But their performance was a huge improvement on last year’s display in the same competition – showing the huge progress they have made in the last 12 months.
Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe: European Junior Championships 2019 Duet TechKate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe were less than a point off the podium as they scored 82.4323 to finish fourth in the Duet Tech at the European Junior Artistic Swimming Championships 2019 in Prague.1/8
Shortman and Thorpe scored a total of 82.4323 that left them in fourth spot, only 0.6623 points off a place on the podium.
Spain’s Mireia Hernandez and Irene Jimeno edged the British duo out of the bronze medal place with a total of 83.0946.
Russia’s pair of Kseniia Ladnaia and Elizaveta Minaeva took the gold medal with a total of 89.0204, while Ukraine’s duo of Oleksandra Burdova and Anna Nosova were second on 86.0516.
Last year, Shortman and Thorpe scored 79.6 to finish in seventh spot.
Fourth is amazing
So while they will ultimately be feeling slightly disappointed at narrowly missing out on a medal, they duo can take plenty of heart from their performance for the rest of the championships.
Karen Thorpe, Swim England National Synchro Manager, was proud of the girls’ efforts.
She said: “Unfortunately a medal just wasn’t to be but fourth is amazing.
“They swam near the beginning of the competition and so did our main rivals, Spain.
“Although it was close, and our elements were slightly stronger, giving us a higher score in that category, they pipped us on the other two.
“But it’s a great effort considering they were seventh last year.”
The second day of the competition sees Shortman compete in the solo free preliminary competition, with the technical team also in action.
