Under the title of 92nd Open Latvian Swimming Championships Riga will host one of the last FINA approved qualifying events for XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This year Riga will welcome athletes from 14 countries.
2 (1)The RTU Kipsalas swimming pool as the last place where to achieve qualification times for olympics has choosen by athletes from 14 countries, including finalists of European Championships Halim Zulal Zeren and the Iskender Baslakov (Turkey), World Youth Olympics silver medal winner Povilas Strazdas (Lithuania) and Maxim Shemberev (Azerbaijan), who was the world junior champion in 2011 in Lima and took the 15th place in 400m IM at his first Olympic games in 2012 when represented Ukraine. Likewise to previously mentioned athletes, race in Riga may be historical for athletes from Ukraina (Dmytro Seledets), Vietnam (Paul Le), Armenia (Mkhitaryan Vahan), as well as for athletes from other countries.
Latvian Nationals will be important competitions also for local athletes, cause in those three days Latvians will decide who will join to the national olympic team and will compete in worlds most important sport event. It is worth to recall that 8 Latvian athletes have met the B qualifcation standarts and still have hope to qualify for RIO, they are – Uvis Kalnins, Nikolajs Maksalenko, Arturs Pesockis, Daniils Bobrovs, Girts Feldbergs, Alona Ribakova, Kristina Steins and Gabriela Nikitina.
“This is no longer just the national championships, but a very significant and, possibly, crucial race for many athletes, so the organisational responsibility for us is very high. We’ve gathered participants from 14 countries, part of whom have only one goal – to qualify for the Rio, and we hope that this sporty tension will give positive acceleration for all athletes”, says the Meet Director and General Secretary of Latvian Swimming Federation Aivars Platonovs.
The Latvian National Championships will start in the morning of 27th June, followed by finals at evening session.
More information about 92nd Latvian Nationals, the results and online broadcasting will be available in the Championship’s official website – www.latviannationals.com
Swimming news courtesy of Latvian Swimming.