Streamlined News: Junior Nationals, South Africa Nationals Wrap-Up; Open Water News; Olympic Divers Appear at Nationals


PHOENIX, Arizona, August 20. THE USA Swimming junior national championships came to a close on Friday with Gillian Ryan and Allie Szekely each winning their fourth events at the meet. Ryan's fourth win came in the 1500 freestyle, where she lowered her personal best by 24 seconds and beat the field by a full 30 seconds. Ryan's wins at juniors also came in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles.

Szekely swam a 38.7 breaststroke leg to win the 200 IM with a 2:15.98. Szekely completed a double sweep at the meet, winning both breaststroke events and both IM races at just 14 years old.

SwimMAC Carolina, known mostly for its successful postgraduate team, now has a combined junior national team title to its credit, with strong performances in the relays to help it win by 117 points over the Pleasanton Seahawks.

You can read all about the meet by going to swimmingworld.com and taking a look at our prelims and finals recaps from all five days.

South Africa will take 18 swimmers — 11 men and seven women — to the FINA short course world championships. Chad Le Clos is one of those swimmers, and despite withdrawing after the second day of competition due to illness, is on the roster for the 200 free and 100 fly. Le Clos is the reigning short course world champion in the 200 fly from 2010 and could be preselected to swim that event this December in Turkey. Cameron van der Burgh won the 100 breast at the 2010 short course worlds, and could likely be preselected for that event. Roland Schoeman, Darian Townsend and Darren Murray each qualified for four individual events.

Diana Nyad is once again in the water between Cuba and Florida, trying to achieve her lifelong dream of completing the 103-mile swim. As of this morning, she has completed about 34 miles in about 24 hours. A strong storm hovered over her yesterday, forcing her off course briefly, but reports indicate that she's back on track. Weather, marine life and injury have halted Nyad's three previous attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida, and the 62-year-old said before the swim this could be her last shot at breaking the record for the longest unassisted open water swim.

In more open water news, Frenchman Philippe Croizon has completed his goal of connecting all the continents last weekend with one of the toughest swims out there. The 44-year-old swam from Little Diomede island off the coast of Alaska to Great Diomede island in Russia, a distance of 2.7 miles in 39-degree water, to join the Americas and Asia. Croizon's accomplishment is more amazing, given that he has no arms or legs and swims with the aid of special flippers. Croizon previously swam between Europe and Asia and Africa and Asia, as well as between Oceania and Asia. With the Atlantic Ocean being so expansive, it's unlikely that Croizon will try to swim between the Americas and Europe.

And FINA held the first junior world open water championships last weekend in Canada, where the Germans walked away with four of six gold medals. Germany won the 3-kilometer team events in the 14-16 and 17-18 age groups, along with Felix Bartels winning the 5K in the 14-16 age group and Rob Muffles winning the 7.5K swim for the men in the 17-18 age group. The United States picked up a silver medal as well from Jordan Wilimovsky in the 17-18 age group.

Seven of the members of the Olympic diving team for the United States made an appearance at the nationals over the weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina. Only Troy Dumais competed, winning the individual three-meter springboard by 44 points. A few divers won their first national titles in an attempt to be the new stars of the sport in the first national diving competition of the new quadrennium.

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