Britain’s open water swimmers will face uncharted waters at this month’s World Championships in Melbourne following a surge of new talent into the sport after the 10km event was adopted into the Beijing Olympic programme.
Competition for open water success will be more fierce than ever as athletes look to gain valuable experience and world medals against the a field of proven quality on unknown athletes.
Britain’s three open water swimmers are currently adding the finishing touches to their World Championship preparations as part of the full British Swimming squad at The Southport School on the Gold Coast in Australia.
The team faces a week of pool-based work before heading to Melbourne where they will take to seas around St Kilda to familiarise themselves with conditions in readiness for the start of the open water events on 18th March.
Britain’s most experienced open water swimmer in Melbourne will be Alan Bircher who will be attending his third World Championships at the age of 25.
“I’ll be focusing on swimming the 10km as that’s the big one since it’s been included on the Olympic programme for Beijing.
“I finished seventh in that event last time around but feel I’m in better shape and have more experience this time around. Saying that the competition is going to be stronger than ever given the fact it’s now an Olympic event.”
Bircher believes his preparation, culminating in 10 days with the British squad, will stand him in good stead when the gun fires in Melbourne.
“I’ve had two big blocks of training in Australia over the past three months. I spent six weeks in Brisbane before Christmas and I’ve been over here for a further six weeks leading up to this camp,” said Bircher.
“During that time I’ve been training with some very good Australian open water swimmers and I feel I’ve benefited from that. There’s been a lot of competition between me and the guys in training so you’re always pushing yourself.
“I haven’t gone to a World Championships before in as good shape as I am at the moment. I feel better prepared than ever, physically I feel strong. It’s all tactical now - how I decide to swim the race.”
Bircher also feels experience will be a key factor in deciding the final placings at the St Kilda event.
“The past couple of years have given me a lot more experience and that will serve me well when the event starts. It’s been a learning process for me since last time and the past couple of events I’ve simply used to look at my tactics,” said Bircher.
“This week will be my last tough one before the World Championships and I shall end it having swam over 75km. I’ll then start to bring down the volumes slightly before we get into Melbourne and then go very easy just five days out.”
The open water swimmers will be guided through their preparation camp and World Championships by Sean Kelly (Stockport Metro), who coached to a medal at the Athens Olympics in the pool.
“It’s great to see open water very much part of the full British Swimming squad at this preparation camp.
“We wont be doing any open water swimming while on the Gold Coast because of the high seas and obvious threat posed by sharks.
“That part of our preparation will come in Melbourne when we swim the course at St Kilda prior to the championships starting.”
Kelly has been pleased with what he’s seen so far from his athletes.
“The guys have been training well and training hard, and I’ve been very impressed with Alan Bircher who has done as much work as anyone to give himself a chance of being up there at the end of the 10km course,” said Kelly.
“All of the guys are looking good and they will need to be in the best shape. This event is entering new territory now it’s part of the Olympic programme. The standard at the World Championships is going to go through the roof.”
-ends-
The 12th FINA World Championships will take place from 17th March until 1st April 2007.
The British team comprises:
Alan Bircher - University of Bath
Cassie Patten - Stockport Metro
Keri-anne Payne - Stockport Metro
Diving events take place from 19th to 26th March.
Swimming takes place from 25th March to 1st April.
Open Water takes place from 18th to 25th March.
Synchro takes place from 17th to 24th March
For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on 01509 632237, 0778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@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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