Richard Weinberger Fastest Canadian in Long Beach: Earns Spot on Worlds' Team

Canada's team spots for the 10-kilometre races at the upcoming world open water swimming championships are set.

Richard Weinberger of Victoria, Simon Tobin of Ste-Foy, Que., Zsofia Balazs of Toronto and Nadine Williams of Edmonton qualified at team trials Friday in Long Beach, Calif., for the open water swimming race.

The race was also a world team trials for the Americans as well as their national championships.

In the men's 10-km race, World Championship Bronze Medallist Fran Crippen led American swimmers to a medal sweep clocking one hour 57 minutes 14.728 seconds. Charles Peterson was second in 1:57:15.457 and Andrew Gemmell third in 1:57:15.840.

Weinberger took fifth spot in 1:57:19.467, just 4.5 seconds back of Crippen; and Tobin was ninth in 1:58:25.729.

‘I’m pretty happy,’ said Weinberger. ‘The very first turn was probably the biggest highlight for me. I really had to gun it or get crushed by 40 grown men. After that it was a pretty smooth race until the end I just didn’t have the kick to get into the top-three.’

The top two Canadians in both the men's and women's races earned a berth on the Canadian team for the world open water swimming championships set for Roberval, Que., July 17-23. The fastest Canadian male and female at Roberval will then be selected to represent Canada' at the Pan-Pacific Championships on August .

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