JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 22. SOUTH AFRICA\u2019S premier Open Water Swimming Series, The Swim Challenge Series 2006-2007 was officially launched at a well attended function at the Johannesburg Stadium on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Swim Challenge Series 2006-2007 has grown in stature since being introduced in 2004 and besides being the official seeding events for the world famous Halfway Telkom Midmar Mile, has now taken on greater significance for those athletes with international Open Water Swimming aspirations.<\/p>\n
With the discipline being accepted by the International Olympic Committee in October 2005 as a new event in the Olympic program, the stature of The Swim Challenge Series 2006-2007 is greatly enhanced with the introduction of the 10km and 3km events to complement the popular 5km event which has been the mainstay of Swimming South Africa\u2019s Open Water Swimming Strategy.<\/p>\n
The Swim Challenge Series 2006-2007 races are also the official qualifying events for the Telkom SA National Aquatic Championships 5km event, the SA \u201cB\u201d National Swimming Championship 3km event and consideration for the SSA National Senior and Junior Open water Swimming squads. Only squad members will be considered for national team selection and international participation.<\/p>\n
The Swim Challenge Series 2006-2007 will consist of twelve events throughout South Africa and will follow the well established and popular format of four 1km events that begin at 9:30 a.m. at 45 minute intervals and a 500m fun swim that concludes matters at 12:30 p.m. In the past, a 5km event has started proceedings at 7:00 a.m. This will change for the forthcoming series with half of all events being replaced with a 10km event starting at 7:00 a.m. and a 3km event starting at 8:00 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis format will afford our elite open water swimmers the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Marathon Swimming distance domestically, thereby gaining valuable racing experience while the 3km event will allow our junior and masters athletes the opportunity to maintain racing fitness,\u201d said Neville Smith, the Coordinator of Open Water Swimming at Swimming South Africa.<\/p>\n
With a number of international open water swimming competitions earmarked in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics, Smith felt that it was in the interest of the sport to increase the pool of athletes that the Federation can draw upon. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is imperative that we nurture our National Open Water Swimming squads over the next few years and support those athletes that are committed to the discipline by affording them the opportunity to compete internationally. However we must be correctly prepared and The Swim Challenge Series is an ideal competition that provides tough and competitive conditions.\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
The series kicks off on Oct. 8 at the Hazelmere Dam in Canelands, north of Durban, Kwa Zulu Natal and concludes on Jan. 27, 2007 at the Blue Rock Dam in Somerset West, Western Cape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 22. SOUTH AFRICA\u2019S premier Open Water Swimming Series, The Swim Challenge Series 2006-2007 was officially launched at a well attended function at the Johannesburg Stadium on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n