I stand corrected on Olympic open water qualifying

I am the open water student, Munatones is the master. From Steve Munatones:

"... There are 11 remaining spots to fill in the men's 10K at the second qualifying swim in Beijing on June 1st. One of these spots will be allotted to the Chinese representative. The remaining 10 spots will be given to the first 10 finishers; but, each country only gets one spot.

Because Mark Warkentin placed in the top 10, the U.S. does not get any spot. In the same way, countries like Australia , Netherlands , Italy , Greece and Belgium also do not have the opportunity to qualify a second teammate at the Beijing race (because they also placed a swimmer in the top ten in Seville ).

Therefore, Chip Peterson will not be eligible to try to qualify again for the Beijing Olympics. That is, your second paragraph is incorrect (i.e., …if Chip Peterson is going to go…the selection will be up to USA Swimming).

If possible, please clarify this for your readers because this may lead to many misunderstandings and some of your readers will send me emails on this subject, accusing FINA and/or USA Swimming of making the process confusing, misleading, inappropriate or politically based. Like you, I am only trying to promote the sport, its heroes and participants, but I would rather focus on the positive vs. the negative.

In fact, the qualification explanation is quite clear – unfortunately, the entire explanation has not been adequately presented to the general public in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, when picking up bits and pieces of the qualification criteria, misunderstandings are often made. Please help me try to avoid this situation, if possible.

By the way, the only country on the men's side that has 2 swimmers in the Olympic 10K final is Russia . In the same way, the only two countries on the women's side that have 2 swimmers in the women's 10K final are Great Britain and Brazil . On the men's side, there will be 24 countries represented in the field of 25 male swimmers and 23 countries represented in the field of 25 female swimmers. ..." -- Steve Munatones

Go to 10Kswim.com for a primer on open water swimming

2008 FINA World Open Water Championships: Update on Grant Hackett's DQ

I should steal that "spinning siren" that Matt Drudge uses for stories like these. Anything Steven Munatones writes about open water is worth it In this update, Steven goes into specific details as to how and why Grant Hackett was DQed.

Swimming World update: "... The second infraction was committed with less than 250 meters from the finish in the mad dash to the finish. When the pace picked up with less than 1000 meters to go, Hackett was caught in the middle of the surging pack. With every stroke, unintentional collisions were made due to the close proximity of the swimmers to each other. As Hackett tried to create more space between himself and the swimmer alongside him, he apparently slowed down and tried deliberately to go over the back of Chip Peterson's legs. Apparently, the degree of separation between Hackett and Peterson was not enough. Unfortunately for both swimmers, Hackett swam over Peterson in a manner that three referees believed impeded the progress of Peterson. ..." [Link]

You would think that Grant Hackett would have swam like my favorite Russian, Larisa Ilchenko, by surging to the front and staying there. I bet Chip Peterson was pissed about the infraction but then again, look what it took to bring him down, the greatest distance swimmer of our time. Chip will still make it to Beijing I bet.

2008 FINA World Open Water Championships: Warkentin is going to Beijing, Grant Hackett got hammered and DQed!

The qualifying process for the Beijing open water races is awkward. For instance, according to the Steven Munatone's article at Lane 9 News, Chip Peterson did not finish in the top 10. He came close by placing 13th but that did not guarantee him a spot in Beijing. However, Saleh Mohammed, of Syria who placed 23rd will get to go; (rightfully so), since he has rated as the Asian continent's best finisher.

If Chip Peterson is going to go, he needs to race again on June 1st in Beijing in another qualifier race. If Chip does not qualify there, then the selection will be up to USA Swimming.

Here is a snippet from Steven Munatone's Lane 9 News article: "... SEVILLE, Spain, May 4. SIMILAR to the women's 10K championship yesterday, a British Olympic pool swimmer led the entire way until a savvy Russian surged at the end to claim the gold at the 2008 FINA World Open Water Championships. David Davies dragged the entire lead pack of over 40 men around four loops of the 10K course in Seville. Swimming consistently at 41-43 strokes per minutes, Davies lifted up his head every 20-50 strokes as he led the field. ..." [Link]

Above is how close the Open Water race was: David Davies got out touched by Russia's Vladimir Dyatchin by by an arm length. Photo from the BBC. [Link]

In this article by the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian teammate, Ky Hurst, said: "... A lot of the Europeans were rumoured to have said they would target Grant and they unfortunately did, ..."

"Two things came into play with Grant's swim, one he did not have the experience and two he is Grant Hackett and he was targeted big time. ..."

"They swam over him, bumped into the side of him, Grant has a large stroke and bumping into him every time is going to shorten his stroke up and going to hurt him and they were swimming over his legs,"

"That is what they do here, it is not the easiest sport in the world and unfortunately experience comes into play." [Link]

This article from the International Herald Tribune quotes Grant Hackett as to why is was disqualified: "... There were times when there were bodies everywhere — it was that kind of race," Hackett said. "I'm the first to admit that it was never going to be easy and, with 150 metres to go, another swimmer swam over the top of me and pulled me back and I swam over his legs and that's what I was supposedly disqualified for." [Link]