SPANISH TEST FOR EXCITING OPEN WATER SQUAD
World Championship silver medallist Cassie Patten will compete
as part of a British Open Water Swimming squad this weekend
in Spain at an event that has attracted arguably the world's
strongest field.
A British team of seven will contest the Seville leg of the
FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup in the Guadalquiver
River and, as the venue of next year's qualifying event for
the Beijing 2008 Olympics, anyone with Olympic aspirations
will be there.
The event will provide swimmers and coaches with a valuable
insight to a course that, in 12 months time, will ultimately
determine those who will able to contest the first open water
Olympic medals following the sport's adoption onto the Olympic
programme for 2008.
And Britain have real Olympic contenders in Patten (Stockport
Metro), Alan Bircher (University of Bath) and Keri-Anne Payne
(Stockport Metro) among others.
All competed at a tough World Championships in Melbourne
this year where the quality of the field was buoyed by the
Olympic opportunity Beijing will provide.
The sport is in transition with many pool-based swimmers
moving into open water with an Olympic performance and the
possibility of medals as the motivating factor.
This has seen the standard and competitiveness of open water
swimming move forward rapidly but Britain, with Patten's silver
medal in the World Championship 10km, a strong performance
from Payne in 11th and an eighth place finish for Bircher,
are keeping pace and Head Coach Sean Kelly will be looking
for this to continue in Spain.
"The venue will be home to the Olympic trials next year
so we'll see one of the best fields in the history of open
water converge on Seville to take a look ahead of what will
be their first chance to make an Olympic team," said
Kelly.
"Everyone involved in the sport from around the world
is here. It's going to give people an insight into what will
be required next year and the field itself will be as high
a quality as we saw at the World Championships in Melbourne
this year."
Kelly has been impressed with how his swimmers have trained
this week ahead of the 10km events on Saturday.
"Everybody within the team has worked hard and enjoyed
the week so far but the work really begins on Saturday,"
said Kelly.
"They've trained as a group, mainly in the pool, and
are very optimistic about the competition. The river course
is going to be pretty warm, around 25 Celsius, but it looks
a good course, four laps of 2.5km, and they guys are certainly
prepared for it.
"They haven't rested for the event as this year is about
preparing for a demanding 2008 and they've been doing about
8km a session in training but it will provide a great experience
for the athletes as they'll be back here in 12 months' time
at the World Championships where they can qualify for the
Olympics in Beijing."
The Seville event kick-starts a busy summer season for the
open water swimmers and they'll continue their development
in London next week at the Festival of Open Water Swimming
which comprises a weekend of international competition at
the Royal Albert Docks in London from 16th to 17th June.
Over two days of competition, athletes will battle it out
for titles in the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup, LEN
5km Open Water Cup, British 10km Championships, British 5km
Championships and the 3km Junior International.
Teams from Italy, South Africa, Argentina and Egypt will
be in action at the Docks, while athletes from Russia, Australia
and the USA have entered for the first time in the Festivals
three-year history.
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