Swimming: 5th Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships Technical issues delay first day of competition |17 September 2022

Girls’ 7.5km podium (Photo: Roland Duval)

After hours of delay due to several technical issues, the fifth Fédération internationale de natation World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships finally got underway yesterday with four races on the day’s programme.

The three-day event which is taking place at Beau Vallon started with the boys’ and girls’ 5km races (14-15 years old) and Seychelles was being represented in the race by Thierry Payet who could only manage a 30th spot finish out of 36 swimmers.

Payet took 56 minutes 59.10 seconds (56:59.10) to complete the two laps of 2.5km each, while race winner Nathan Szobota from the Unites States of America (USA) clocked 48:50.90.

Italian Davide Grossi was second in 48:51.00, ahead of Diego Heinze of Germany who finished third in 48:51.60

In the same event for girls, Claire Weinstein from the USA finished first in 51:52.40, ahead of runner-up Tuna Erdogan of Turkey who finished in 51:56.80. Noa Martin of Spain was third overall in 52:05.90.

Also on yesterday’s programme were the 7.5km races for boys and girls (16-17 years) where they covered two-and-a-half laps.

In the girls’ race, Katie Grimes of USA was the grand winner in 1 hour 22 minutes 38.50 seconds (1h22:38.50), finishing ahead of Narin Burcunaz of Turkey who completed the race in 1h24:57.40. Lia Csulak of Hungary was third overall in 1h25:04.10.

In the boys’ race, Hunor Kovacs-Seres of Hungary was the grand winner in 1h16:02.10, ahead of second-placed Paulo Strehlke Delgado of Mexico in 1h16:20.50. Mate Hartmann, also of Hungary was third overall in 1h16:20.60

Seychellois swimmer Nathan Nagapin completed the race in 1h40:09.20 to finish 36th overall.

The fifth Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships continue today with the boys’ and girls’ 10km (18-19 years) individual events, while tomorrow there will be a mixed-team event consisting of two athletes from each gender completing a 5km course (4x1.25km).

The three-day eventis gathering over 300 delegates from 35 countries, including swimmers, coaches and officials from around the world, including Seychelles.

The 35 countries being represented at this fifth Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships are Angola, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Monaco, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United States of America, Venezuela, and Seychelles.

Roland Duval