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Calgary's Holzner in mix for artistic swimming medal at Tokyo Olympics

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Claudia Holzner went into the Olympic Games with a significant goal in mind.

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The Calgarian wants to finish top five in the duet event of artistic swimming.

From there … who knows?

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Maybe the podium is within reach.

And it’s so far, so good after Monday’s splash-down in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Holzner and her duet partner, Jacqueline Simoneau of Montreal, finished fifth in qualifying. Their 91.2333 points finished them nearly seven points behind first-place Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina, the duet representing the Russian Olympic Committee.

“I was happy to have Jacqueline by my side and to build on her experience,” said the 27-year-old Holzner, a first-time Olympics competitor, told The Canadian Press following their swim.

“After our performance tonight, we can be confident for tomorrow — the technical routine,” continued Holzner. “We will still take the time to celebrate this moment. Tomorrow, we will focus on the technical routine. I think we can raise the bar.”

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Holzner and Simoneau, who placed seventh with then-partner in duet with Karine Thomas at the Rio Olympics five years ago, hope to do that when the duet technical routine indeed goes Tuesday (4:30 a.m. MT) followed by the duet free routine final Wednesday (4:30 a.m. MT).

An underwater view shows Canada’s Claudia Holzner and Canada’s Jacqueline Simoneau compete in the preliminary round for the women’s duet free artistic swimming event during the 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021.
An underwater view shows Canada’s Claudia Holzner and Canada’s Jacqueline Simoneau compete in the preliminary round for the women’s duet free artistic swimming event during the 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. Photo by FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT /AFP via Getty Images

“It is such an artistic sport,” the one-time competitive gymnast Holzner told the Olympic website. “I love being able to perform for the audiences and feel the support from the crowd. It has given me the freedom to create. Compared to gymnastics, it’s nicer to land on your face in the water than on the beam.”

Even nicer would be to land on the podium in the Tokyo Games.

But that’s not an easy feat given the competition on hand. In particular, the ROC, China, Japan and Ukraine are expected to be the strongest contenders for medals, with the Russians having won every Olympic gold since Sydney 2000.

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That said, Canada’s duet tandem isn’t out of the mix. The team, which trains with Canada Artistic Swimming out of Institut National du Sport du Québec, has a strong resumé, including a gold medal from the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, where Holzner and Simoneau qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.

“It was such a special moment,” Holzner, who studied nursing at Mount Royal University, told The Canadian Press. “Before we swam our coach (Gabor Szauder) was like, ‘Jackie, go for a second Olympics,’ and ‘Claudia, become an Olympian.’”

They’ve done that, and now they’re firmly in the fight for the podium in Japan.

After the duet program, both Holzner and Simoneau will try to help Canada’s artistic swimming squad medal in the team event beginning Friday (4:30 a.m.). 

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Canada’s Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Duehring, Annie Foreman-Mackey and Georgia Simmerling compete in the women’s track cycling team pursuit qualifying event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Izu Velodrome in Izu, Japan, on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021.
Canada’s Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Duehring, Annie Foreman-Mackey and Georgia Simmerling compete in the women’s track cycling team pursuit qualifying event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Izu Velodrome in Izu, Japan, on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. Photo by PETER PARKS /AFP via Getty Images

CYCLISTS OUT OF GOLD HUNT

Calgary’s Allison Beveridge and Canada’s women are out of gold-medal contention in track cycling’s team pursuit.

In fact, the only medal available to them after Monday’s qualifying is the bronze.

The team of Beveridge, B.C.’s Jasmin Duehring and Ontarians Annie Foreman-Mackey and Georgia Simmerling finished their race in a time of 4:15.832 at the Izu Velodrome. That placed them eighth and knocked them out of the race to finish first at the Games.

Now, they will pedal to try and finish top two against the other bottom-four teams from qualifying — France, Australia and New Zealand — and earn a shot at bronze by racing Tuesday (12:30 a.m. MT).

Beveridge is the first one out of the gates for Canada, which is trying to repeat its bronze from the Rio Olympics.

“I like the start gates, so that’s kind of nice, and the race is at least in your control, so I do like that,” Beveridge said. “I really haven’t ridden anything else in my life, so I do like it. It was my role in Rio, and it really hasn’t changed.”

“We do know each other very well,” Beveridge added. “Off the bike, it’s a very interesting mix of personalities, so everybody has their role. It seems to work. We bicker and fight and get on each other nerves sometimes, but for the most part, we get along well.”

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

http://www.twitter.com/ToddSaelhofPM

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