It has been a really good last two weeks for Canadian artistic swimmers Claudia Holzner of Calgary, Alberta and Jacqueline Simoneau of Chambly, Quebec. In the two World Series artistic swimming events in North America in 2019, Holzner and Simoneau won the silver medal in the duet free and duet technical at the World Series event in Greensboro, North Carolina on the weekend of May 24-26 and then they won the bronze medal in the duet free and duet technical at the World Series event in Quebec City, Quebec on the weekend of May 30-June 1. In the women’s team events in Quebec City, Team Canada won gold in the team free combination and team highlight, and silver in the team free and team technical.
In the duet free in Greensboro, Simoneau and Holzner had a second place score of 89.45 points. Yukiko Inui of Japan won the gold medal with a score of 92.3083 points. Anita Alvarez and Lindi Schroeder of the United States won the bronze medal with a score of 86.0083 points. Simoneau and Holzner reached the podium by 10.1667 points over Monica Arango Estrada and Estefania Alvarez Piedrahita of Colombia, who finished in fourth place with a score of 79.2833 points.
In the duet technical in Greensboro, Simoneau and Holzner had a score of 88.6425 points. Yoshida and Inui won the gold medal with a score of 91.1045 points. Alvarez and Ruby Remati of the United States finished in third place with a score of 85.8815 points. Simoneau and Holzner reached the podium by 8.4831 points over Alvarez Piedrahita and Arango Estrada of Colombia, who finished in fourth place with 80.1594 points.
In the duet free in Quebec City on Friday, Holzner and Simoneau had a third place score of 90.1 points. Wenyan Sun and Xuechen Huang of China won the gold medal with a score of 94.5567 points. Yoshida and Inui of Japan won the silver medal with a score of 92.9667 points. Holzner and Simoneau reached the podium by 3.7333 points over Bregje De Brouwer and Noortje De Brouwer of the Netherlands, who finished in fourth place with a score of 86.3667 points.
In the duet technical in Quebec City on Thursday, Holzner and Simoneau had a score of 88.6612 points. Sun and Huang of China won the gold medal with 92.8049 points. Inui and Yoshida of Japan won the silver medal with a score of 91.7778 points. Holzner and Simoneau reached the podium by 3.3466 points over Bregje and Noortje De Brouwer of the Netherlands, who were in fourth place with 85.3146 points.
In the women’s team technical on Thursday, Team Canada finished second behind China. The Canadians comprised of Simoneau, Holzner, Audrey Joly of St-Eustache, Quebec, Halle Pratt of Calgary, Andree-Anne Cote of Saint-Georges, Quebec, Rebecca Harrower of Edmonton, Alberta, Camille Fiola-Dion of Rimouski, Quebec and Emily Armstrong of Toronto, Ontario. Team Canada had a score of 87.7736 points. China had a gold medal winning score of 93.5677 points. Hungary won the bronze medal with 75.7132 points. Canada reached the podium by 12.285 points over South Korea, who was in fourth place with a score of 75.4886 points.
In the women’s tram free on Friday, Canada finished in second place among three countries participating. China won gold and Hungary won bronze. In the women’s team highlight on Saturday, Canada beat Hungary to win gold and in the women’s team free combination, Canada won gold, followed by South Korea and then Hungary. The medals for Simoneau, Holzner, Joly, Pratt, Cote, Harrower, Fiola-Dion and Armstrong will give them confidence as they prepare to make Team Canada and contend for a medal in artistic swimming at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
