Three of Great Britain’s bigger stars missed the opening day of the Mare Nostrum tour opener in Monaco after they were bumped off of an overbooked flight. James Guy, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Chris Walker-Hebborn were all taken off of an EasyJet flight to Monaco on Friday after a technical issue caused the airline to switch planes.
According to The Bath Chronicle, the original flight was set to run an A320 aircraft, but a technical issue caused EasyJet to switch to a smaller A319. With less seats available, some passengers were bumped – among them, the three world champion swimmers.
Guy, a double Olympic silver medalist and reigning world champ in the 200 free, told SwimSwam that he and O’Connor were able to get a later flight that landed in Monaco Saturday evening. The two missed all of their Saturday events, however. For Guy, that included the 400 free (in which he won silver at Worlds in 2015) and 200 fly; for O’Connor that included early rounds of the big-money “speed tournaments” in the 50 breast and 50 fly along with the 100 breast.
Walker-Hebborn won’t even be attending the Monaco meet after the bumped flight, as all of his events (50 free and 50 back speed tournaments and 100 back) took place Saturday. Walker-Hebborn tweeted that he suited up for a few swims at home, jokingly calling his swims the “University of Bath Mare Nostrum.”
Few suited swims this morning at the University of Bath Mare Nostrum. Safe to say I took 1st place – although i was the only entry. 🔥👊
— CWH (@WalkerHebborn) June 10, 2017
Guy will compete in the 200 free and 100 fly on Sunday and O’Connor will swim the 200 IM, though Guy said the travel delay disrupted the swimmers’ chance to get into a pool on Saturday. The Monaco stop of the Mare Nostrum meet ends Sunday night before the tour picks back up in Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Should have sprung for RyanAir.
Shame on British swimming. You should be flying these guys First Class.
Not sure Easyjet has first class.
At least they weren’t flying United…
I’d give up a seat for $600 except it was Chicago & 1000 ppl have been killed since jan 2016 . Can’t blame the guy for barging back on after that realisation .
The unintended consequences of destroying the Chicago gangs from the early 90’s. Gang disorganization is much more violent than organized gangs.
Yes .I read a theory about politics in tribal societies is that a stationary Robber Baron is preferred to roving marauding gangs .. When you know it is X territory , you have Y tithe ready plus you can negotiate because even Robber Barons don’t want to lose business.
Hence foreign troubles in Afghanistan , Iraq & Libya . But thanks for that , I hadn’t linked it to Chicago .