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Open Water World Cup Swimming - 2007/10/02 12:08
AUSSIES ON THE PACE AT OPEN WATER WORLD CUP
Hong Kong: Swimming Australia’s Telstra Dolphins Open Water team have made a positive start to their FINA Marathon World Cup campaign with Sydney 26-year-old, Ky Hurst the best placed Aussie after a tightly fought seventh placing in the 10 kilometre event at Repulse Bay over the weekend.
In a world class men’s field, Hurst finished the Olympic distance event in a time of 1 hour 44.10 minutes, just thirteen seconds behind eventual winner Valerio Cleri of Italy (1:43:57).
The event further proved the incredible closeness of racing with a mere 40 seconds separating first from twenty first with more results for the Australian men including Brisbane duo in Brendan Capell equal twelfth (1:44.17) and David Browne fifteenth (1:44.18).
In the women’s event, open water veteran, Trudee Hutchinson finished eleventh in a splash and dash finish of 1:50.16, just five seconds away from the gold medal position of Brazilian, Poliana Okimoto (1:50.11).
While fellow Dolphins team mates including Townsville’s Alexandra Bagely clocked 1:50.34 to finish in fifteenth with rookie Jamie Leigh-Austin (1:56.53) nineteenth.
National Open Water head coach, Greg Towle was positive about the results with the Dolphins team in hard training in preparations for the Australian Championships in Penrith in December.
“Across the board it was a solid effort by us especially when you look at the times of our swimmers compared to the winners, we’re right on the pace and unfortunately this time the results don’t do justice to our performance,” Towle said.
“The men’s event was World Championship quality and it was a tough race while the women’s was also of an exceptionally high standard with the blanket finishes in both races a testament to the standard.”
The Australian team now moves on to the next leg of the FINA Marathon World Cup in Singapore to race in their second and final 10 kilometre event this weekend before returning home.
“They’ve all come out of Hong Kong with positives from their respective races and they will all be very keen to have a solid training week before getting another shot to improve on their results in Singapore.”
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