Victoria’s Richard Weinberger Wins Open Water Bronze at Pan Pacific Swimming Championships

IRVINE, California

Richard Weinberger of Victoria took another giant step in his open water swimming career on Sunday winning the bronze medal in the men’s open water 10 kilometer race to conclude the Pan Pacific swimming championships.

Chip Peterson led the U.S., to a 1-2 finish in one hour and 56 minutes and 00. 02 seconds, Frances Crippen was second in 1:56:02.744 and Weinberger followed in 1:56:02.984.

“This (medal) is the result of so much work,” said Weinberger, 20, 13th at the world championships last month. “I had a disappointing 1,500 freestyle in the pool and I decided that I wasn't going to finish the meet on a bad note. I wanted to make my country proud and win a medal.”

Weinberger says his result has given him a lot of confidence for the future.

“The race today made me realize that I'm on the right path to representing Canada in London (at the Olympics),” he said. “I see myself as an Olympian.”

OTHER PAN-PAC NEWS:

Weinberger was joined at the Pan-Pacs by teammates MacKenzie Downing and Nick Sinclair.

Downing was the second fastest Canadian in the 200 Fly, finishing 7th and earning a berth on the 2010 Commonwealth Games to Delhi in October.

Meanwhile, Sinclair got his first taste of Senior International competition swimming in the individual 200 Free, 100 and 200 Back as well as the Canadian 400 and 800 Free ‘B’ relays.

IPC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, EINDHOVEN

After sitting out the first five days of the meet, longtime national team member, and past Paralympian and UVic Alumnus Stephanie Dixon made most of her opportunity, winning the bronze medal in the 100-m backstroke, S9—her only event of the week.

“I always swim more events, and I don’t think I’ll come all this way just to swim only once again. That being said, it was also really great just to sit back and watch how fast all the other Canadians went.”

Overall, Dixon was happy with her placing and the future of her swimming category. “It’s really exciting to have my classification to go so fast. It hasn’t always had the depth.”

Dixon will be the keynote speaker at the Vikes Championship Breakfast September 28th, 2010.