Top Trio To Tackle The Midmar Mile

The 39th aQuellé Midmar Mile will showcase a head-to-head competition between Olympic silver medalist and world 10K champion Keri-Anne Payne and two leading American open water swimmers Christine Jennings and Ashley Twichell.

Payne, the odds-on Olympic 10K Marathon Swim gold medal favorite has dominated the aQuellé Midmar Mile in recent years. The quick straight point-to-point mile swim in the popular Midmar Mile resort is an open water swimming extravaganza that may see the trio swim stroke-for-stroke for much of the race.

While Jennings has been on the world scene for a few years with her two FINA World Cup victories, Twichell is an emerging force in the elite echelon of open water swimming. Her breakout performance was at the 2011 FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai where she earned a gold medal in the 5K Team Pursuit event and a bronze medal in the solo 5K race in a photo finish. Earlier this year, Twichell was named the 2011 USA Swimming Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year.

The women will also be joined by another leading marathon swimming personality, Martin Strel of Slovenia. The legendary long-distance swimmer, known as the Big River Man, has completed stage swims along the entire length of the Danube River in Europe, the Mississippi River, the Yangtze River in China and the Amazon River.

While speed is the name of the game for Payne, Jennings and Twichell, stamina is Strel's middle name. Not only has he swum non-stop for days in a row (84 straight hours on his longest 504.5K non-stop swim in the Danube River), but he also has the patience and logistical talents to put together stage swims of hundreds of kilometers around the world.

Come February 11-12th in Kwazulu Natal in South Africa, the stars will be out at the aQuellé Midmar Mile.

Courtesy of Open Water Source

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