Spain seeks breakthrough in Synchronized Swimming

(BEIJING, August 5) -- Spain's Synchronized Swimming team is aiming for silver at the Beijing Olympics to fill its Olympic medal void.

Anna Tarres, the team's head coach, said in an interview with an Olympic News Service (ONS) reporter on August 1, "Being realistic, our goal is silver. Anything more would be amazing and anything less would be disappointing."

"Our goal is 9.8 to 9.9 on technical and a 10 on artistic. If we get those scores and the Russians make a mistake then we may have a chance at the gold," she continued.

Tarres is confident in achieving a silver medal because Spain recently beat Japan, the runner up at Athens 2004 in both dual and team competition, taking first place at the Olympic Synchronized Swimming Qualification Tournament with a score of 98.167 points.

Spain's primary rival, Japan, was overshadowed by reigning Olympic champion Russia at both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of her own team, the head coach was objective when talking about her team's form during training. "We're cruising at the moment. In terms of our performance today we were well below a 10, but it's been a long trip and we need to catch up on some sleep before we can perform at our best," she said.

"Our two main problems are synchronization and execution of patterns. We will be working on these in the next week," she added.

"We are more excited than worried about seeing the Russian team again," Tarres said, although they are unlikely to defeat the reigning Olympic champions.