With spots on the United States’ roster for the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships and additional qualifications on the line, the nation’s top open-water swimmers will return to California’s Castaic Lake on June 13 and 15 for the 2014 USA Swimming Open Water National Championships.
The 10-kilometer national championships will be contested Friday, June 13 with the women’s race slated for 8 a.m. PDT, followed by the men at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, June 15, the 5K national championships open with the men at 8 a.m., followed by the women at 9:30 a.m. A live webcast of each race will be available online via usaswimming.org.
In total, more than 100 swimmers are expected to compete over the course of the two-day event, including nearly 20 members of the USA Swimming National Team.
Olympians Haley Anderson (Granite Bay, Calif.), Alex Meyer (Ithaca, N.Y.) and Andrew Gemmell (Wilmington, Del.) are expected to headline the field, as are 2013 FINA World Championships team members Eva Fabian (Keene, N.H.), Christine Jennings (Longmont, Colo.), Becca Mann (Homer Glen. Ill.), Sean Ryan (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif.).
Seven FINA World Championships medalists are slated to swim at Nationals, including three-time medalist Chip Peterson (Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.) and 2013 medalists Anderson and Fabian.
Emily Brunemann (Crescent Springs, Ky.), who became the first American to win FINA’s 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup series title in 2013, is also expected to swim next week.
Castaic Lake also hosted 2013 Open Water Nationals, with Meyer and Jennings taking the 10K national titles and Gemmell and Anderson earning the 5K victories.
Featuring the nation’s top open-water swimmers, 2014 Open Water Nationals will serve as the selection meet for the following teams and international competitions:
· Open Water Pan Pacific Championships Team
· Open Water Junior Pan Pacific Championships Team
· FINA World Junior Open Water Championships Team
· USA Swimming Open Water National Team
· USA Swimming Open Water National Junior Team
The top four men’s and women’s finishers in the 10K at Open Water Nationals will qualify for the Aug. 25 10K race at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, Australia.
Additionally, the top six finishers per gender in the 10K at Open Water Nationals will qualify for the 2014 USA Swimming Open Water National Team, provided they finish within 10 minutes of the first-place finisher. A summary of the 2014 open water selection procedures is available at usaswimming.org.
This swimming news is courtesy of USA Swimming.