Japanese get bikinis in a twist over Rome flop

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's water babes face an embarrassing inquisition after the country failed to win a single synchronised swimming medal at the world championships in Rome.

'Perma-smiles' wiped off their faces, the Japanese women packed up their nose pegs and spangly costumes after missing out on a world or Olympic medal for the first time.

Crest-fallen Japanese officials apologised for the team's miserable showing after never looking like threatening to disrupt Russia's dominance of the sport.

"I offer profuse apologies," Japan's head coach Mitsuho Katayama told Sunday's Japanese media. "We need to rethink our training methods, selection process, everything."

Russia won six of the seven disciplines in Rome while choosing not to compete in the free combination won by Spain.

Japan made wholesale changes to the synchronised swimming team which competed at last year's Beijing Olympics, sending a new-look squad with an average age of just 20 to Italy.

Told by their various club teams their "legs would look chubby" if they over-exerted themselves in the gym, several of the Japanese women scaled back on physical training.

"A lot of them couldn't even do 10 push-ups at the start," Japanese trainer Naoyuki Tamura told the Nikkan Sports daily.

The team's subsequent flop triggered a flood of "Synchro in Crisis" headlines in Japanese newspapers after going empty-handed for the first time in 20 world and Olympic tournaments.

"We need to build bodies that can compete with the best," admitted Katayama. "We have to learn how to start winning medals again."

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