Swimming Canada Receives $500,000 Boost for Open Water World Championships

ROBERVAL, Quebec, Canada, November 20. SWIMMING Canada and Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean inc., greeted with joy and great satisfaction the $500,000 contribution from Heritage Canada to help organize the 6th FINA open water world swimming championships (Roberval 2010) set for July 15-23, 2010 in Roberval, Que. The announcement was made this morning at a news conference by the Honourable Denis Lebel (Roberval-Lac St-Jean), federal Minister of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec) for the Honourable Gary Lunn (Saanich-Gulf Islands) Minister of State (Sport).

Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada's CEO and national coach said: "Canada is a leader and world power in organizing open water swimming competitions. Hosting the open water world swimming championships is fantastic for the Roberval region, helps develop our future competitors in the sport and adds to the already growing interest in the event with its inclusion at the Olympics in 2008. It is worth mentioning Minister Denis Lebel's long term efforts which played a big role in helping our organizations land the hosting duties for the 2010 open water world championships in Roberval."

La Traversée internationale du lac St-Jean inc., which is organizing this world event in partnership with Swimming Canada is also delighted with the announcement.

"This announcement gives us a boost of energy and is a show of support for all our volunteers who have been working hard for several months to organize these championships," said Benoît Amyot, head of the 2010 Roberval organizing committee.

"More than 150 swimmers from 40 countries are expected for these world championships. The swimmers will all be accommodated at hotels in the Roberval sector. The Place de la Traversée will be the central hub of the competition and will be the location for numerous services including accreditations, interpreters, cafeteria, massages, showers, medical, rest rooms, press room etc. ‘'The people in Roberval are passionate about open water swimming as shown by their support for the past 55 years for the Traversée internationale du Lac St-Jean! We are anxious to display this passion to our guests at the world championships,'' concluded Amyot.

Roberval 2010 is a nine-day event scheduled for July 15-23, 2010. It includes six open water swimming races: the women's 10 kilometre (Saturday July 17), the men's 10 kilometre (Sunday July 18), the men's and women's five kilometre (Tuesday July 20) and the men's and women's 25 kilometre (Thursday July 22). It will be the first time the open water swimming worlds are held in Canada. The five previous hosts were: Honolulu, USA (2000), Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (2002), Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2004), Naples, Italy (2006) and Seville, Spain (2008). More than 180 swimmers from 41 countries participated at the last worlds in Seville and the 10 kilometre races were qualifying events for the Beijing Olympics.

In addition to Canada several countries have already confirmed they'll compete in Roberval next July including Germany, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, the U.S., Britain and New Zealand.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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