Swimming: 5th Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships |15 September 2022

Some of preparation work yesterday (Photos by Roland Duval)

Logistic work in advanced stages for today’s official launch

Preparations, including all logistic components, are in the advanced stages and everything will be ready for the 5th Fédération internationale de natation World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships which will be officially launched today at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay.

The event which will take place at the Beau Vallon beach is gathering over 300 delegates from 35 countries, including swimmers, coaches and officials from around the world, including Seychelles.

The official opening ceremony of the championships will take place today, and will be graced by the presence of President Wavel Ramkalawan and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Sylvestre Radegonde.

According to the chairman of the organising committee Alain Alcindor, preparations could have been at a much advanced stage if everyone was committed to their assigned tasks, but he was however satisfied with what has been done so far.

Mr Alcindor explained that due to some minor hiccups, they had to burn the midnight oil in order to complete all the necessary preparations and set-ups for the event which will be broadcast live on national television.

The three-day competition will consist of boys and girls 5km (14-15 years), 7.5km (16-17 years) which will take place tomorrow, boys and girls 10km (18-19 years) individual events scheduled for Saturday, and a mixed-team event consisting of two athletes from each gender completing a 5km course (4x1.25km) will conclude the event on Sunday.

The mixed-gender team event is a 3km open water swimming relay comprising three swimmers, either two boys and one girl or two girls and one boy.

For the team event, swimmers can "swim up"; that is, a maximum of swimmers from the 14-16 age category can swim in the 17-18 age group category with one team per federation.

The 5km, 7.5km and 10km races will be organised on a 2,500m lap course and swimmers must swim four (4) laps for 10km, three (3) laps for 7.5km and two (2) laps for 5km. The 4 x 1.5km mixed relay will be on a 1,500m lap course, left shoulder turn.

The first Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships was held from August 16-19, 2012 in the Welland International Flatwater Centre, located in the heart of the Niagara region, while the second event, initially scheduled to be held on Eilat's North Beach in Israel between August 28-30, 2014 was cancelled and then shifted to Balatonfured and Lake Balaton in Hungary between September 5-7, 2014.

The third event was held in Hoorn, Netherlands in 2016 after being moved from Mexico, while the fourth Fina championships were held in Eilat, Israel in 2018.

Contract agreement to host the event was signed in February this year, before the organising and steering committees were set up.

Roland Duval