FINA World Open Water Championships: Talking Team Strategy

By Steven Munatones, Swimming World Special Correspondent

SEVILLE, Spain, May 1. MANY of the swimmers at the FINA World Open Water Championships spent some of the day working on team strategy.

"At the pool during practice, they were just swimming at the hip, practicing how to draft and helping each other," said a coach who observed Grant Hackett and Ky Hurst of Australia prepare for Sunday's 10K Olympic qualifying race. "They looked pretty smooth together."

Greg Towle, the Australian open water head coach, remarked that the Australian duo "will work as a unit."

In open water swimming, as in competitive cycling, that usually means that one swimmer will take the lead with the other swimmer either directly behind the other or right at their hip, taking full advantage of the drafting effect. After a period of time or designated distance, then the lead swimmer will fall back and the trailing swimmer will return the favor to his or her teammate.

During a press conference in Seville, Hackett explained how he and teammate Hurst plan to work with each other during the race in order to help each other place in the top ten and garner one of the guaranteed spots at the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing.

As if to emphasize the strategy mapped out by Hackett and Hurst, swimmers from various countries were not only warming up together with teammates right on the feet of the swimmer ahead of them, but also swimming around the entire course together like tag-team buddies preparing for the open water race of their lives.

Mark Warkentin at 2008 World Open Water Championships

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