Open Water Swimming

*From original story from cbc.ca

Canada's Richard Weinberger, Stephanie Horner, Eric Hedlin and Breanne Siwicki completed FINA's first ever team relay in 11th place at the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Hungary, on Thursday.

The new mixed relay format was a first at the world championships level and saw teams use a variety of strategies and swimmer orders to compete.

This was not the splash Eric Hedlin was hoping to make as the lead-off swimmer for Canada at the 2017 FINA world aquatics championships in Budapest on Saturday. The Victoria athlete finished 14th in the men’s 5K open-water, an event in which he won the silver medal at the 2013 world championships.

Opening up the World Championships in Hungary, the men raced the 5km open water race today.  PCS and Vikes swimmer Eric Hedlin was near the front from start to finish, holding ~6th place for a while, before dropping to ~25th near the middle of the race before fighting his way up to 11th and ultimately finishing 14th overall in the field of 60 top international athletes.

Original article from Swimming Canada

Swimming Canada announced today  the 2012-2013 National Open Water Team and has named Olympic bronze medalist, Richard Weinberger, as one of the team members.  Joining him is PCS teammate Aimeson King.

Also announced was the Junior Selects team, which included Zac Parkes.

Congratulations to both Richard, Aimeson and Zac, and their coach Ron Jacks.

Zac Parkes won the silver medal in the 10k Open Water event last Monday at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Championships.  Zac finished in a time of 1:42:24 behind the american swimmer, David Heron, who finished in 1:42:01. Janardan Burns from the US finished 3rd.

This year the Pan Pacs was held in Hawaii over 5 days.  Team Canada ended the competition with a total of 11 medals: 4 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze.

Congratulations to Zac and his coach Ron Jacks for a great performance!

A group of approximately 15-20 PCS swimmers, families and friends of Richard Weinberger were at the airport yesterday to welcome him home.  A rousing cheer broke out as Richard and fellow olympians Gillian Carleton and Riley McCormick came through the arrivals gate. All the local media were represented and it was a frenzy of interviews, handshakes, photos and autographs. Richard graciously and patiently met with everyone and even let his medal be passed around the crowd to thrill of kids and adults alike.

Here are some YouTube videos showing the final meters of Richard's race in London and the medal ceremonies after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN6wN30a1C0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA7RKKXarGc

Here are some links to articles from various media outlets written about Richard Weinberger following his Olympic medal-winning performance this morning.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/10/weinberger-wins-bronze-in-10km-swim

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/08/10/richard-weinberger-survives-ma...

Richard Weinberger earned Canada it's first Open Water medal today in the Men's 10km at Hyde Park, and for those that weren't awake to see it, it was quite the nailbiter.

Weinberger was with the lead pack the whole way, even finishing the first few laps in first place.  The back 1.5km saw four of the men breaking away from the rest of the field, with Richard in the mix.