BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Accomplished Spanish synchronized swimmers took their second gold with the highest score in the team routine at the Olympic qualifications tournament here on Saturday.

    The eight Spanish swimmers, wearing caps emblazoned with Afro-style braids, presented an impressive performance to African music featuring vigorous drumbeats. Their difficult acrobatic lifts and consistency in leg movement won them the top spot with 97.834 points.

    The country's duo of Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes, who were also in the team competition, have claimed the title of duet competition on Friday.

    "The performance was really good today. But we try to do better and get higher scores with the routine at the Olympics," said Spain's Thais Henriquez.

    She said her team would probably keep the routine but will add more changes. The energetic performance was developed with the help of a Senegalese man in 2006 and debuted at the Melbourne World Championships in 2007, which helped them win the silver behind Russia in team free final.

    Spain has never won an Olympic medal in synchro swimming, but they have become competitive in international competitions. They were the gold medallist at the European championships this march and took home two medals in team competitions in Melbourne last year.

    "We are getting stronger, and I think we are confident to compete with the Russians," said Spain's Raquel Corral.

    Like China, which has Japan's famed synchro swimming "Godmother" Masayo Imura as the head coach, Spain also has a technical coach from Japan Mayuko Fujiki.

    "She is very composed and brings a lot of serenity to the team. It's great to have people from different cultures to converge their expertise," said Corral.

    Athens Olympic silver medallist Japan took the team competition's silver with 96.501 points, 1.333 points behind Spain.

    "It was a tough competition, but we managed to get through with good team spirit," said Japan's Emiko Suzuki at the news conference.

    Japan's team coach Masayo Ogawa said the team's performance was only 50 to 60 percent of their level. Japanese synchro swimmers won the bronze behind Russia and Spain in team free final in Melbourne last year.

    "We need to accept the low scores. The tournament helped us to understand ourselves," she said.

    The team's bronze winner Canada made the medal podium with 2.5 points behind the winner Spain. Their performance, featuring Chinese astrology, held off the competitive Italian team and snatched the last Olympic ticket.