A group of British swimmers are set to compete at the 2007 Swimming Australia Open Water Championships from 21-23 December.

Members of next year’s World Championship squad selected to compete in Melbourne in March, will take to Australian waters where they will look to compete against some of the top open water swimmers trying to cement their place on the host nations’ team.

Alan Bircher (Bath University), Cassie Patten and Keri-Anne Payne (both Stockport Metro) will go to Australia with coach Sean Kelly who heads up the Stockport Metro swimming programme.

With the course at the Australian Championships being the same for the World Championships, athletes will be given a chance to familiarise themselves with the surroundings.

For Kelly, it will be the first time he has taken a British squad abroad for an international open water meet.

“Our preparation to go out there will not be ideal. The athletes will go straight to compete after arriving in Australia, and then will fly straight back after competition, however it will be a useful trip for the swimmers,”

“There is a strong tradition of open water swimming in Australia, so the strength of the competition will be good or them ” he said.

For Keri-Anne Payne, it will be her first 10km competitive swim in what is her first open water international appearance.

The Stockport Metro swimmer qualified for the World Championship squad after a time trial held at Loughborough University last month.

 
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For further information contact British Swimming Media Assistant Stephanie West on 01509 632 236 or e-mail stephanie.west@swimming.org

British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association)  British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

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