SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - The synchronized swimming competition kicked off Tuesday afternoon with the duet technical event.

Anna Kozlova (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Alison Bartosik (Santa Clara, Calif.) placed first scoring a 95.334. The U.S. duo holds a slim margin over Canadians´ Fanny Letourneau and Courtenay Stewart¨who finished second with a 95.167.

´´Our swim felt good,´´ said Kozlova. ´´It wasn´t easy to swim in water that hot, but Chris (head coach Chris Carver) said that it was our best swim this year.´´

The order of draw was not good to the pair as they swam third followed by the Canadians.

´´We have had bad draws all year, but there were only 10 duets so it probably didn´t make much of a difference,´´ stated Kozlova. ´´Sometimes it is better to go before your competition so you don´t hear their scores.´´

Former Ohio State University swimmers Carolina Moraes and Isabela Moraes, swimming for their home country of Brazil, finished third posting a 91.334.

The duet competition will wrap up Thursday with the duet free event. Fifty percent of both technical and free routine scores will be taken and added together for the final composite score.

The team competition will begin Wednesday with the technical event and wrap on Friday with the free competition.

Events results will be available on www.usasynchro.org. For more information or to receive results directly, contact Amy McClintock at mediadir@usasynchro.org.

Duet Technical Results
1. Anna Kozlova, Alison Bartosik, USA, 95.334. 2. Fanny Letourneau, Courtenay Stewart, CAN, 95.167. 3. Carolina Moraes, Isabela Moraes, BRA, 91.334. 4. Nara Falcon, Olga Vargas, MEX, 87.667. 5. Luna Aguilu, Leilani Torres, PUR, 84.000. 6. Eglen Martinez, Nineth Martinez, VEN, 82.500. 7. Claudia Cueli, Maricarmen Saleta, DOM, 80.167. 8. Nadezhda Gomez, Violeta Mitinian, CRC, 73.667. 9. Deevah Leenheer, Kemberly Vinck, ARU, 72.667. 10. Florence Corleto, Andrea Esquivel, ESA,70.667.