Canada kicks off FINA World Championships with Open water swimming 5km

SNC story

ROME – Philippe Dubreuil of Sherbrooke, Que., and Zsofia Balazs of Toronto lead a six-member Canadian team in the open water swimming events at the World Aquatic Championships.

“The Open water events will be a great way to kick off the FINA Worlds for Canada,” said Pierre Lafontaine, CEO and National Coach. “You will be seeing lots of great distance pool swimmers crossing over to the open water events. The competition is getting stronger and our swimmers have shown great strength internationally, so we’re quite excited.”

Also on the men’s open water team are David Creel, 28, of Victoria and Simon Tobin, 24, of Ste-Foy, Que. Creel has battled back from an elbow injury to qualify for the team in both the five and 10 kilometre events.

While the men’s team is very experienced, Canada’s three swimmers in the women’s event are under-20. Zsofia Balazs, 19, of Toronto is already a young veteran in the sport and she is joined by Bridget Coley of Hamilton and Nadine Williams of Sherwood Park, Alta., both 16.

The men’s and women’s five kilometre is on Sunday (July 19), the women’s 10 kilometre is on July 21, the men’s 10 kilometre on July 22, the women’s 25 kilometre on July 23 and the men’s 25 kilometre on July 25.

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SNC full story ...Swim-Natation Canada 17-Jul-09
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