Psychological boost for Singapore's synchronised swimmers ahead of SEA Games
S'pore's synchronised swimmers out-perform Malaysian counterparts at Worlds
On its own, the results of Singapore's synchronised swimming team at the ongoing Fina World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, are nothing to crow about.
The Republic's best showing so far was in the solo technical, where Debbie Soh placed 20th in the preliminary round with 72.9689 points.
Singapore's synchronised swimmers also did not progress to the final in three other events - solo free, duet technical and duet free.
However, they bettered their Malaysian counterparts in these four events, which provides the team an important psychological advantage going into next month's SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.
All four events, as well as the team free, will be offered at the Games in the Malaysian capital.
Apart from the psychological advantage, the results will also boost the reputation and standing of the team.
That, in turn, may have an impact on the results in KL, due to the subjective nature of the sport, whereby factors such as atmosphere of the venue may influence a judge's scoring.
NEW ROUTINES
Singapore Swimming Association vice-president (synchronised swimming) Philip Lee said: "The results bode well for our preparations for the upcoming SEA Games.
"The routines at the World Championships, in particularly the solo and duet, are new routines that we have been working on for the past year.
"They are choreographed by our consultant Julie Sauve and I am delighted with the scores that we got.
"That said, the coaches and athletes will continue to finetune all the routines including the team up till SEA Games."
Soh, 19, placed 21st in the solo free with 75.6000 points, while Malaysia's Lee Yhing Huey was 27th with 72.0333 points.
Soh and Miya Yong finished 28th in both the duet free and duet technical with 76.0000 and 74.7393 respectively, while Malaysia's Lee and Gan Hua Wei were 32nd (73.7333) and 31st (73.1753) in the same respective events.
Also, Gan was 24th in the solo technical with 71.3383 points.
Singapore also placed 19th (73.6012) in the team technical event, and competed in the team free yesterday.
Results for the latter were not available at press time.
Malaysia did not compete in the two team events.
Before the Worlds, Singapore also performed better than Malaysia in all four events that both countries competed in at the French Open in March, and half of the six events at the Japan Open in April.
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