(Beijing, April 15) The "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Olympic Games Synchronized Swimming Qualification Tournament is going to open at the National Aquatics Center on April 16. Headed by many-time Olympic and world championships runners-up Japan, a number of strong teams will vie for Olympic tickets in the five-day tournament.

The Olympic synchronized swimming competition consists of two events, team and duet, with the participation of 8 teams in the team event and 24 pairs of swimmers in the duet event.

According to the rules for the qualification for the Olympic team event, continental champions, top three teams of this qualification tournament and the Olympic host nation will qualify for the Olympic Games.

The rules for the qualification for the Olympic duet event are somewhat complicated due to the large number of teams involved: the countries and regions which have qualified for the team event will automatically qualify for the duet event, which means eight pairs will automatically qualify for the Olympic Games. The remaining 16 pairs will be the top-ranked pair at the continental championships or continental games and the best-ranked pairs at this tournament, excluding those who have already earned their Olympic berths.

As the host of the Olympic Games, China can directly qualify for the Olympic team and duet competitions. However, as a matter of fact, China does not need this "host privilege" at all, as Chinese swimmers had won the team event at the 2006 Asian Games.

So far, five countries have qualified for the 2008 Olympics, namely Russia (Europe), the United States (America), Egypt (Africa), Australia (Oceania) and China (Asia). Among them only China will participate in the duet event of this tournament, not for Olympic tickets but for gaining experience at the newly-built Olympic venue.

This time, six teams and 32 pairs will vie for three team tickets and more than ten duet tickets through the Beijing qualification tournament. Due to the fact that even Japan, Athens Olympic team and duet runners-up and many-time world championships runners-up, will have to fight for a ticket, the overall level of the tournament is believed to be high.

Besides Japan, Spain has earned a few bronze medals from the World Championships since 2003; Canada also used to be a medalist; and Italy has ranked among the world top six on several occasions. Moreover, Ukraine and Greece have also been the finalists of the World Championships.