Artistic swimming: Kate Shortman & Izzy Thorpe target Olympics after impressive Europeans
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Artistic swimming duet Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe
British duet Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe are "confident" they can reach the Olympics after three impressive personal best scores at the European Championships.
It was the first event since last March for the artistic swimmers, who were seventh in both the free and technical disciplines.
Eight places remain for Tokyo 2020 at the qualification event next month.
"We're so excited after this week," Shortman told BBC Sport.
"It's been really tough being without competition for so long because of the pandemic, but we did the best we could while the pools were closed and I think all the land work has helped turn some of our weaknesses into strengths."
Team GB has been represented in artistic swimming, formerly known as synchronised swimming, at each Games since Beijing 2008 and Great Britain's current duet are determined to continue that run in Tokyo.
"I'm feeling a lot more confident after seeing our competition and how well we can perform after all this time away from competing," Thorpe, 20, told BBC Sport.
"It would be amazing for Great Britain to qualify and for us to help continue the growth of the sport in this country."
Shortman, 19, said: "It sounds so cliché, but it's literally been the dream since we were about seven to compete at the Olympics and it would mean everything after training for more than a decade to achieve it."
UK Sport have invested just under £200,000 in the GB duet as part of their aspirational funding programme, which was launched in 2018 to help sports which are unlikely to achieve Olympic medals to develop a plan for future success.
That support was due to end after this summer's Games, but in March it was confirmed that a programme for the duet will now receive over £215,000 en route to Paris 2024.
"We've coped so well without support, but with it we can go that extra mile, so it's amazing," said Thorpe.
"We want to have the team involved though as that creates a really special environment, so hopefully there's a way of gaining support for the team as well ahead of Paris."
The Olympic qualification event was due to take place in Tokyo from 1-4 May, but was rescheduled due concerns around the coronavirus pandemic in Japan and it will now be in Barcelona from 10-13 June.
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