By Steven Munatones<\/i><\/p>\n
Erica Rose, America's best marathon swimmer over the last ten years, has confirmed her participation in the Great Channel Swim across the 21-mile English Channel.<\/p>\n
Rose, who transitioned from the world's 5K champion in 1998 to one of the top professional marathon swimmers in the world, will face the world's greatest field of open water swimmers from all over the world. <\/p>\n
Russians Yuri Kudinov and Natalya Pankina, Bulgarian Petar Stoychev, Cassandra Patten of Great Britain, Stefanie Biller of Germany and Australians Shelley Clark and Brendan Capell have committed to compete in the world's most iconic channel. <\/p>\n
Stoychev has competed in 3 Olympics in the 1500 meters, placed sixth in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim and was the first and only person to break 7 hours across the English Channel in 2007. Kudinov has won 3 world 25-kilometer championships and has the third fastest English Channel record in history with a 7:06. Patten, the British favorite in the race, won the bronze in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing and finaled in the 800 freestyle. Pankina is another top marathon swimmer with an 8:11 English Channel crossing under her belt. Clark has been another top professional marathon swimmer, always placing high on the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix circuit. Capell is a former world 25K champion who has won professional marathon swims. The final list of 14 competitors will be announced shortly by the race organizers.<\/p>\n
"[The Great Channel Swim] is such an amazing opportunity. I am thrilled to be a part of it. It is something I have wanted to do for several years and to have the opportunity to do it now – and along side some of the world's very best open water swimmers. I know that I am not merely crossing the channel… I am racing across it!"<\/p>\n
The window of opportunity for the Great Channel Swim begins on August 19. If the weather cooperates on that day, then the race begins. If the weather does not cooperate, then the race is postponed until it does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Steven Munatones Erica Rose, America's best marathon swimmer over the last ten years, has confirmed her participation in the Great Channel Swim across the 21-mile English Channel. Rose, who<\/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":[11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-water","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n