Olympic synchro swimming qualification tournament to open in Water Cube

BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic synchronized swimming qualification tournament is to open on Wednesday at the National Aquatics Center, the Olympic aquatics venue.

According to rules of the world swimming governing body FINA, the synchro swimming will include team and duet competitions at the Olympics.

The five-day tournament will see six medal hopeful teams including Japan and Spain competing for the top three places which can bring them tickets to the Olympics this August. A total of eight teams will participate in the team contests at the Games.

Continental champions that have already qualified under FINA rules, like Russia and the United States, will be absent from the tournament.

China will not enter the team event either as it has directly qualified for the team event as the host nation, but it will field its twins duet and 2006 Asian Games gold medalists Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting.

A total of 32 duets will compete here for about 10 tickets to the Olympics, which will see 24 pairs swim in August.