LEN EUROPEAN OPEN WATER WORLD CUP – LEG 2
- May 31, 2018
- Gravelines, France
- Preview
- Results
- Pan Pac Selection Procedures
The second leg of the LEN European Open Water World Cup, held Thursday in Gravelines, France, acted as the second round of qualifying for the Americans for the upcoming Pan Pacific Championships in August.
The first four swimmers to qualify were determined at U.S. Open Water Nationals in early May, where Jordan Wilimovsky, David Heron, Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson booked their tickets to Tokyo by finishing 1st and 2nd in the men’s and women’s 10k events respectively.
In Gravelines, the men’s event was won by Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, but the top American finish went to Michael Brinegar (8th), who lost an incredibly close battle with Heron for that 2nd spot earlier in the month in Tempe. Taylor Abbott, 5th at U.S. Nationals, was right behind Brinegar in 12th, taking the 4th and final spot at Pan Pacs for the men.
Both Twichell and Anderson were in action in France despite already qualifying for Tokyo, with Anderson winning the women’s event outright. Twichell was 3rd overall, while Hannah Moore (9th) and Chase Travis (13th) were the next two highest placing Americans to grab the final two U.S. Pan Pac open water slots. In Tempe, Travis was 5th and Moore 6th (only the top-6 swimmers from Nationals qualified to compete in Gravelines and vie for a spot on the team if they missed earlier). Travis also won the junior national 7.5k title at U.S. Nationals.
Brendan Casey, Brennan Gravley, Heron and Katy Campbell were the other Americans who competed, with Casey 14th, Heron 29th and Gravley 34th on the men’s side, and Campbell 18th for the women.
The qualifiers have now been confirmed, with the results of the men’s race having to be updated a while after the event was complete.
FULL American OW Pan Pac Team
- Jordan Wilimovsky (US Nationals)
- David Heron (US Nationals)
- Michael Brinegar (European World Cup)
- Taylor Abbott (European World Cup)
- Ashley Twichell (US Nationals)
- Haley Anderson (US Nationals)
- Hannah Moore (European World Cup)
- Chase Travis (European World Cup)
Check out a full recap of the open water events in Gravelines here.
An honest question: Who pays for our American open water athletes to go to France to compete? Is the cost of food, lodging and airfare each athlete’s to carry?
USA Swimming pays all expenses for a certain number of foreign trips for National and Junior National Team members each year. There are not many US OW meets to get any real practice in. A complete staff travels to the meets including team doctor. If you go to USASwimming.org under Resources/National Team/OW Quad Plan you can see all the planned meets.
Latest results, which were changing by the hour yesterday, show Michael Brinegar in 8th. His time of 1:44:28.90 was less than two seconds from second place finsher, 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist Ferry Weertman, who finished in a 1:44:26.97. Taylor Abbott was 12th, in a 1:44:31.47, 2 1/2 seconds behind Brinegar. Brendan Casey was 14th in a 1:44:32.90. David Heron was 29th in a 1:46:04.00. Brennan Gravley was 34th in a 1:46:24.00.