Swimmer's Daily

  • International open water championship Oceanman united more than 1500 people for a weekend of sport, competitive spirit and leisure

    Last April 25-26 athletes from all over the world came to Altea to compete in the first swim of the Oceanman championship. Faithful to its nature, it was truly an international event with representatives from 12 different countries, building up to a solid 20% of the total number of participants.

    Swimming experience in Altea wasn`t all about competing but also about leisure and other sports events, including the wetsuit test run, clinics session in the municipal pool of Altea, a cocktail party and the technical briefing at the local youth center, to name just a few.

    In the early morning, at 9.am, swimmers were given headstart to the first 10km race, starting at La Olla beach and finishing at the beach of La Roda. Adrián Gonzaléz, the current state subchampion of open water swimming won out in the final sprint the Andalusian champion Paco García and the Swedish swimmer Alexander Berggren.

    Georgia Alice Amison from the UK finished first in the female category, followed by Eliana Sotelo and Ineke Weekers in the second and third positions respectively.

    The second morning swim of the day had to be modified due to the strong wind current coming from the south. The participants of this race tackled 2500 m out of initial 5000m with the start and finish at La Roda beach. In the male category the victory went to Victor Benages from Castile, with Jaime Marqués from Toledo and Iñaki Guridi from the Basque Country in the second and third positions. Female category featured Sandra Ortolá from swim club Altea in the third position, Rebeca Santos from swim club Torrijos second and Ana Martínez from swim club Palma in the first position.

    Oceanman Altea also offered a non-competitive 1.5km race with the start and finish at La Roda beach. As traditional this race generated lots of interest among the public who had the chance to witness the finish line live.

    Overall three competitions gathered more than 550 swimmers. In May the championship series is moving to the Costa Brava, Palamós, to bring together once again more than 500 swimmers for a memorable and enjoyable open water experience. Oceanman will be back to Alicante´s coast in October with the European Oceanman Final in Benidorm 25 October.

    More details on the championship at: www.oceanman-openwater.com

    Press release from Oceanman

  • According to new research, many marine animals may have independently learned to optimize their swim strokes in the same way.

    A tiny cuttlefish and a huge stingray don’t look like they have much in common. Genetically and morphologically, they don’t. But even though their bodies are totally different shapes, it seems that both follow the same mechanical rules when they swim: Their long fins both ripple lengthwise and oscillate from side to side. And for both, the length of one undulation during swimming divided by the height of the sideways movement is always a ratio of around 20.

    In fact, at least 22 marine animals have exactly the same ratio.

    Read Washington Post

    Photo by Kačka a Ondra

  • Several city pools are set to open in the coming month, but a couple will not open at all this summer. The Parks and Recreation Department determined 25 of the city’s 36 pools are in need of repairs, mostly for water leaks.

    Metz Pool, on Austin’s east side, and Mabel Davis Pool, on the south side, will remain closed for the summer. PARD officials say the repair work needed at those pools is so extensive they are keeping them closed to cut costs.

    “Our average age of our pools is 50 years old,” said Cheryl Bolin, the aquatics division manager. “With that comes a lot of maintenance. They develop leaks, and so that increases our fees for water, electricity, chemicals, and day to day repairs.”

    See kxan

  • A Navy SEAL from Queens and another from Michigan died after a training accident in a swimming pool at a base in Virginia.

    Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Seth Cody Lewis of Queens and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Brett Allen Marihugh of Livonia were found unresponsive Friday at the bottom of the Combat Swimming Training Facility at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

    Lewis, 32, died Friday and Marihugh, 34, died Sunday, officials said.

    See New York Post

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_FvDWd4BR0

  • Any device designed to sit on your wrist all day has to be able to withstand the elements. The Apple Watch is no exception to this. It may be an expensive piece of hardware, but there’s only so much you can do to protect it so the responsibility falls to Apple to make a hard-wearing device. And in the case of water resistance, the Apple Watch delivers.

    Australian YouTube channel FoneFox decided to put the Apple Watch Sport through a rather extreme waterproofing test. They fully expected to break the watch, but as the video shows, they couldn’t much to their surprise.

    See GEEK

  • For the first time since the WKU Swimming and Diving program was suspended, a representative for members of the team is speaking out.

    “There’s things that these young men and women are not proud to have engaged in. We’ve got a report here that makes it look as bad as it can possibly be. It’s authored by a person that takes no responsibility for taking part in any of it. It was a group of teammates engaging in what they deemed to be trust building and team building, rite of passage exercises. By no means did they intend this to be a malicious or torturous process,” said attorney Brian Lowder.

    Brian Lowder’s clients were accused of hazing and sexual assault in a letter to police by former swimmer Collin Craig. In it, he accuses teammates of forcing him to drink. He also says that team members provided alcohol to recruits, something his teammates accuse him of doing all the same.

    See WBKO

  • Plymouth-based Olympic champion Ruta Meilutytesays she no longer sees world champion Yuliya Efimova as an “honest competitor” following her doping ban.

    The breaststrokers shared one of the biggest rivalries in swimming, with Russian Efimova claiming two golds to Meilutyte’s one at the 2013 Worlds.

    Her 16-month ban ended in March, and the pair will meet at August’s World Championships in Efimova’s homeland.

    Meilutyte was “really disappointed” when Efimova failed a doping test.

    “I used to really respect her as one of my strongest competitors and it was a great rivalry between us, but I don’t see her as a true honest competitor any more,” added the Lithuanian. […]

    “It’s not like she’s been in the sport for a year, she’s competed for a long time and people know how cautious and careful we need to be with the substances out there,” Meilutyte told BBC Sport.

    “I think it was quite a short punishment and I think people who take drugs should face harsher consequences.”

    Since returning, Efimova has posted the quickest times in the world in the 50m and 100m breaststroke this year.

    “If anything I’m more motivated because once you do drugs the effects can be for life,” said the Lithuanian.

    “To beat her again is just going to mean a lot to me because I know I’m clean.”

    Read BBC Sport

  • William Mitchell takes an enchanting dive into an infinite sea of Silversides in Grand Cayman.

  • A #SwimBiz presentation by Trent Staley, Vice President of Marketing, Iowa Speedway.