Olympic silver medallist Keri-Anne Payne won again as the British Gas Open Water squad enjoyed victories in both the women’s and men’s 10km race at the LEN Open Water Cup in Israel.
Payne adopted similar techniques that saw her take her Olympic medal in Beijing and led the race from the front. She led four British girls through the race and finished victorious in 02:04:27.25. The British Gas team claimed the top four spaces, with Katy Whitfield taking silver, Charlotte Wooliscroft wining bronze and Sophie Casson finishing in fourth place.
The men’s race saw British Gas team member Richard Charlesworth (pictured in Beijing 2008) swim to victory as he claimed the number one spot in 01:56:41.95, 0.2s ahead of Brian Ryckeman (Belgium), who finished in seventh place at the Beijing Olympic in the same event, and Michael Dmitriev (Israel). Daniel Fogg took a good fourth place and Craig Hamilton finished fifth. The top four men finished within 1.05s of one another.
“It was the speed from the last buoy that really made the differance. I was fourth with about 70m to go. It was a relatively slow paced race. It was quite choppy for about 400 meters of each lap and we did end up going off course once or twice,” said Richard who was elated that he qualified for the 2009 World Swimming Championships in both the 5km and 1500m freestyle.
View video (6m 45s) from the event.
View medal ceremony (9m 43s)
The team for the World Championships will be announced in the coming weeks based on the results of this meet.
The British squad consists of:
Men
Richard Charlesworth – Hatfield
Daniel Fogg – Loughborough Uni
Craig Hamilton – Warrender Baths
Alfie Howes – Kingston Royals
Gareth Keating – Leicester Penguins
Women
Sophie Casson – Loughborough Uni
Keri-Anne Payne – Stockport Metro
Charlotte Woolscroft – Shiverers
Katy Whitfield – Stockport Metro
Catherine Marcoft – Rochdale
Kayleigh Dawson – City of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Eleanor Faulkner – City of Sheffield
Lucy Worrall – Stockport Metro