Elegance by no means effortless
THERE will be plenty of elegance on display at Moana Pool over the coming days.
The national artistic swimming championships — formerly known as synchronised swimming — will be held in Dunedin from Sunday to Tuesday.
The championships have attracted about 160 of the best competitors from around the country, and some from further afield.
Teams from Sydney and Brisbane will be in action, as will one from New Caledonia.
A camp for the Pikopiko team — a national team for 14 to 17yearolds — will also be held in the days following it.
The competition is broken down into two categories — figures and routines.
The figures will be held on Sunday from 9am2pm.
In that competition, the athletes are given figures to perform and are judged on how well they do so.
It is not an easy thing to do well.
‘‘They’ve got to do them slowly,’’ competition manager Phyll Esplin said.
‘‘That means you’ve really got to get those core muscles in your body working. You’ve got to control them.
‘‘When you do a somersault, it isn’t a quick somersault, it is very slow.
‘‘You want to be able to show you can control it and at the end of it you can come out and lie on top of the water, what we call a lay out.’’
The combination routines — the most exciting of the routines — will follow on Sunday.
On Monday and Tuesday, the solo and duet routines will be held.
The routines are done to music and elegance is a focus.
‘‘The idea is to put the figures into the routines, connect them together so that you get an elegant dance in the water, so you’re getting this elegance going through, it looks pretty and it looks nice.
‘‘So when you want to show something angry, you’ve got a contrast.
‘‘You’ve got to perform to what the music is telling you, so you’ve got to know what the music means.’’
Dunedin will have one competitor at the event, in 9yearold Alice Jefferies.