Open water swimming holds many challenges for those athletes strong enough to brave the elements over large distances but the biggest test to face the British contingent at this week’s World Championships will be a flood of new talent with aspirations of Olympic success.
The sport has seen an influx of pool-based swimmers from around the world since the 10km event was announced as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic programme and this week in Melbourne will be an opportunity to see how far the sport has moved forward as a result.
British Swimming trio Alan Bircher (University of Bath), Cassie Patten and Keri-anne Payne (both Stockport Metro) will be looking to add their names to what is now a list of world class pool-based swimmers making the transition.
It’s a scenario that Head Coach Sean Kelly has been preparing the swimmers for as he is very familiar with some of the new faces to the sport as he coached Steve Parry to Olympic bronze in the Athens pool three years ago.
“In both events the standard is going to be extremely high, higher than we’ve ever seen before and by some margin,” said Kelly. “Since the 10km event was included in the Olympic programme there’s been a great deal of interest in open water swimming and we’re seeing that at these World Championships.
“There’s been a large number of really good pool swimmers make the transition into the sport. In the women’s event there are around a dozen world class pool athletes and to win a medal is going to be very difficult, and not like World Championships of the past.”
Kelly is pleased with how his swimmers have prepared for the event and put them through their final conditioning at the British Swimming team’s preparation camp on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Whereas Kelly is confident the right amount of work has been achieved, with weekly volumes as high as 80km, he has concerns for the conditions the swimmers will face when they take to the course off the St Kilda shoreline.
“Everybody is looking in really good shape,” said Kelly, “but there are a lot of jellyfish on the course at the moment. They sting and it’s a painful sting so that’s a real added dimension for the guys to contend with.
“Reports suggest it’s going to be very windy for both 10km events so I think it’s going be extremely tough on the athletes, all things considered, both physically and mentally.
“There’s nothing they can do about the conditions or the possibility of a sting or two. They’ve done all they can now and they’ve just got to do themselves justice which I’m confident they can.”
The athletes will swim a parallelogram-shaped course that will consist of four laps of 2.5km.
And at the end of the Women’s event on Tuesday and the Men’s event on Wednesday Kelly feels it won’t be the best swimmers that stand on the podium but it will be the strongest characters given the challenges posed by the course
“It’s been very rough out there today and it’s expected to be the same on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“The conditions and the jellyfish are going to be very disruptive for the athletes and I don’t necessarily think medals will be awarded to the greatest talents. I think those on the podium at this meet will be the toughest competitors,” said Kelly.
“Medallists will be the ones who face their fears, realise they are going to get stung and just get on with it rather than worrying about it.
“The jellyfish are very big and at two foot across are going to take some avoiding if a swimmer actually realises they’re there at all.”
Bircher is the only member of the squad to have competed at a World Championships before and with experience on his side he’s looking for a top eight finish that would equal his result from two years ago in Montreal.
“In the men’s event there are around 25 guys who could be in with a shout considering the conditions,” said Kelly. “It really is going to be a lottery and it will be the swimmers with nerves of steel who will come through.
“It would be great for Britain if we had all of our swimmers finishing in the top eight. If you’re up there at the end then anything can happen but there’s some real speed out there with those swimmers who’ve moved outdoors from the pool. Strategy is going to play a really important part.”
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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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