Jiang twins keeping options open

It was twice as nice for Chinese twin sisters Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting, who proudly celebrated their victory in the free routine duet at the national championships on Monday with their classic performance "The Swan".

The Jiang sisters made their national debut at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and have performed well at the Olympics and world championships. At this year's nationals, held in conjunction with the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series meet in Beijing, they chose to represent the Sichuan team in duets and group events.

Wenwen said that after winning the duets at last year's Jakarta Asian Games the sisters adjusted their training.

The 32-year-olds are now mothers, so they opted to skip the national group training camp and selections for this year's worlds.

"We are no longer young; our physical condition does not allow us to compete in both duet and group competitions. Injuries are another consideration. It takes longer for us to recover," Wenwen said after Monday's triumph.

"We hope to stay competitive, yet within our abilities. We want to help the younger generation with their skills. We have taught them a complete performance, hoping they take over as soon as possible."

As of now, the twins are keeping their options open.

"It's hard to give an estimated time for retiring. We want to practice and see; we don't want to give up the pool. We hope that we can compete in the National Games in 2021 and contend for the group titles," said Wenwen, adding that swimming has become something of a family pastime for their children.

"They can swim already, and we hope they will someday enjoy artistic swimming. Our greatest dream now is that our children grow strong and healthy, and we can continue our careers," she said.

Meanwhile, powerhouse Canada won two more titles on Monday for a sweep of six gold medals in the World Series competition.

Claudia Holzner/Jacqueline Simoneau continued their winning streak in the duet free routine and topped the field with 89.8667 points.

Charlotte Tremble/Laura Tremble of France and Oleksandra Burdova/Anna Nosova of Ukraine took silver and bronze, respectively.

Canada performed the formidable "Mechanism of Time" in the team free final in 89.13, beating France (88.20) and Ukraine (85.96).

"It is our last performance on a trip that has had competitions for five weeks in a row. We were very pleased with our performance today... and especially happy about all the hard work we have done," Holzner said.

From the three-day fifth leg, Canada swept victories in two solo, two duet and the highlight events, as well as the team free routine.

China bagged two golds from the free combination and team technical routine.

The sixth leg goes to Greensboro, in the United States, on May 24, to be followed in Quebec City, Canada, on May 30 and Barcelona, Spain, on May 31.

The Super Final is scheduled for June 14 in Budapest, Hungary.

Xinhua