The open-water portion of the
2007 Fina World Championship of Swimming begins today at a place called Saint Kilda beach, Australia. The photo to right illustrates the course where both the men's and women's 5km event will take place.
The article I am linking to states that an Australian swimmer described the course as unpredictable; (What ocean swim isn't?) and here is the full article for details: [
link]
Jellyfish are mentioned by an Australian swimmer probably to instill a distraction upon the visiting teams psyches' but the jellyfish they have down under are way more sinister then the ones on "normal earth". They have jellyfish down under the size of a half dollar that actually kill with a single sting. The bad news is, if it can get any worse than that, the sting takes a week to do so. Then of course their are the gentleman in the gray suits that occasionally dismember a surfer or two but I am more frightened of the Jellyfish.
Oh, if you want to know the name of a scary jellyfish that can cause a painful death, just ask my kid. It's called the
Irukandji or
Box jellyfish and not everybody dies from its sting. Here is a link to a Wiki page regarding the fish: [
Link]
In about a 1/2 hour or so I head off to the third day of SPMA Regionals. I am bringing the camera and I may post a video too. Again, I am hoping to break the one minute barrier in the 100 free for the second time in my life.
