HAMBURG, Germany, January 10. ONE of SwimmingWorldMagazine.com's newest international correspondents Stephen Marcus checked in from Germany with a few items of interest in the country.
The first bit of news is that German Swimming Federation Sport Director Orjan Madsen spoke candidly about the nation's World Championship prospects on German television. Madsen expects that Germany will have to rely upon on strong group of women to mine "some precious metal" at the meet to be held in Melbourne at the end of March. The Germans will look to world record holder Britta Steffen as their top female swimmer, while hoping that the likes of Thomas Rupprath, Helge Meeuw and Mark Warnecke can surprise on the men's side.
In the second item, Germany named its open water team for Melbourne.
Men:
5K: Thomas Lurz/Christian Hein
10K: Thomas Lurz/Christian Hein
25K: Toni Franz
Women
5K: Britta Kamrau-Corestein/Stefanie Biller
10K: Angela Maurer / Britta Kamrau-Corestein
25K: Angela Maurer, Stefanie Biller
Both Lurz (5K/10K) and Maurer (25K) will be defending world titles at the meet.
Special thanks to Stephen Marcus for contributing this report.