SWIMMERS TO FACE THEIR FEARS IN OPEN WATER
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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