What happens under the water, stays under the water.

Thrown elbows, dunking, wrestling, and punching. Gosh the fans went to an open water race and a hockey game broke out! An unbelievable article about the "rugby" politics under the water at the Fina World Championship 5k open water event:

• "The only rule is you're not supposed to impede somebody's progress," Kaufman said. "Who really knows what that means? The people on the boats can only see a certain amount of the physical stuff. They probably can't see anything underwater."
• Larisa Ilchenko of Russia, who won her fourth consecutive 5K world title Sunday, accused American Leah Gingrich of hitting her in the eye when Gingrich allegedly used a breaststroke kick.
• "I actually got dragged underwater by someone as well at one stage, but that sort of stuff just happens," said Gingrich, who is 17 and competing in her first major senior-level international meet.

2 years ago at the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim two swimmers kept bumping into me at the same time as if they were trying to swim in a DNA helix pattern and I happen to be in the way. I am not going to to say what I did because what happens under the water, stays under the water.

Read all about it here: [Link]

The open-water portion of the 2007 Fina World Championship of Swimming begins today

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]