Melbourne, Australia March 17- April 1, 2007 - Hanson Media Group
Melbourne, Australia March 17- April 1, 2007 - Hanson Media Group
Melbourne, Australia March 17- April 1, 2007 - Hanson Media Group
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<strong>Australia</strong>n Aquatics <strong>Media</strong> Guide - XII FINA World Swimming Championships – <strong>Melbourne</strong> <strong>March</strong> <strong>17</strong> – <strong>April</strong> 1, <strong>2007</strong> © HSM<br />
<strong>2007</strong> OPEN WATER DOLPHINS HAVE PROUD TRADITION TO UPHOLD<br />
OPEN WATER SWIMMING is as <strong>Australia</strong>n as Vegemite, kangaroos, Holden cars and<br />
lamington’s – almost every Aussie has, at some stage, swum in a river, lake or at the beach.<br />
It’s an <strong>Australia</strong>n past time and not surprisingly the Telstra Dolphins have a proud competitive<br />
history in the sport.<br />
<strong>Australia</strong> has won at least one medal from five of the six FINA World Championships that have<br />
featured open water swimming since it was first added to the program in Perth in 1991.<br />
This year the open water component of the <strong>2007</strong> World Championships will be held at St Kilda<br />
beach, one of the most picturesque points of Port Phillip Bay and only a short distance from<br />
<strong>Melbourne</strong>’s city centre.<br />
Considered one of the most fashionable suburbs within <strong>Melbourne</strong>, it's one of <strong>Melbourne</strong>'s<br />
most lively, cosmopolitan areas and is also a hugely popular among tourists who flock there all<br />
year round to enjoy the night life and to visit one of the city’s most renowned landmarks, Luna<br />
Park.<br />
The Open Water Swimming course itself is free to attend and will run between the famous St<br />
Kilda pier and the St Kilda Marina, creating a natural amphitheatre for the 5 kilometre, 10km<br />
and 25 km events for both men and women.<br />
Four of the six events - the men’s and women’s 5km (both Sunday <strong>March</strong> 18), the women’s<br />
25km (Saturday <strong>March</strong> 24) and men’s 25km (Sunday <strong>March</strong> 25) - will be held on weekends<br />
allowing anyone the opportunity to witness some of the globe’s fittest and most courageous<br />
athletes battle for world supremacy.<br />
FINA conduct’s World Open Water Championships every second year (even years) as a stand<br />
alone event as well as including the open water component alongside swimming, diving,<br />
synchronised swimming and water polo in the biannual FINA World Championships in odd<br />
years like <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
Leading the Telstra Dolphins will be current 25km FINA World Open Water champion Josh<br />
Santacaterina (10km, 25km), former Kiwi Kate Brookes-Peterson (5km, 10km) and surf life<br />
saving icon Ky Hurst (5km, 10km).<br />
Joining them in the <strong>Australia</strong>n team will be 2004 25km FINA World Open Water gold medallist<br />
Brendan Capell (25km), team veteran Shelley Clark (25km) and teenagers Alexandra Bagley<br />
(5km, 10km) and David Browne (5km).<br />
Apart from Santacaterina and Capell’s success at the last two FINA World Open Water<br />
Championships, three other <strong>Australia</strong>n’s have tasted gold at the World Championships.<br />
Open water legend Shelly Taylor-Smith won the inaugural 25km title on the Swan River in<br />
Perth in 1991 before joining Melissa Cunningham, who won individual gold in the same event,<br />
and David Bates, to take the 25km team title in Rome in 1994.<br />
Others to see the podium in more recent times include Hurst, who won silver in the 5km as a<br />
precocious 16-year-old in Perth in 1998, high profile pool swimmer turned open water star<br />
Hayley Lewis, who claimed bronze in the 5km in Fukuoka in 2001, and Capell, who snared<br />
silver in the 25km in 2005. – KURT HANSON
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