FINA Newsletter - September 11, 2013

The fourth edition of the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, held in Dubai (UAE) from August 26-31, 2013 produced an amazing number of 47 Championships Records in a 42-event competition (giving an average of more than one record per event). After the six-day meet, it was confirmed that the 2013 edition was the most successful one (marked also by a new record of participation). Many of the names that excelled in the Hamdan Sports Complex will be the swimmers to watch in 2015, at the FINA World Championships in Kazan (RUS), and of course at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (BRA). The level of the organisation in Dubai was also outstanding and set a valuable standard for the future editions of the Championships – in 2015 in Singapore (SIN) and in 2017 in Budapest (HUN).

The medal table was topped by Australia, with 10 gold medals, ahead of Russia and the US team, both finishing with nine titles. The North American delegation won the trophies of the team competitions in both the boys’ and the girls’ fields, receiving the overall Championship Trophy.

Individually, Mackenzie Horton (AUS) won four individual gold medals, getting all the titles from the men’s 200m to 1500m free. In the women’s field, the most successful swimmer was Ruta Meilutyte, from Lithuania, who also left the United Arab Emirates with four individual victories. Meilutyte, 2012 Olympic champion, and already a world winner at senior level, dominated, as expected, in the breaststroke events, but competed with success in new distances (gold medal in the 50m free, for example).

Damian Blaum, from Argentina, and Olga Kozydub, from Russia, were the overall winners of the 2013 circuit of the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix. Blaum, who participated in all the 2013 events, totalled 62 points, slightly better than Evgenij Pop Acev, from the Republic of Macedonia, who was second with 61. The third best this year was Italy’s Simone Ercoli, finishing with 53 points.

In the women’s field, Kozydub, who also swam all the eight races of the season, led the ranking with 111 points, being followed by Esther Nunez (ESP, 72) and by Martina Grimaldi (ITA, 66).

Since 2007, Damian Blaum had been second of the overall ranking on four occasions (2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012), and got therefore his first overall win of the series. For both Pop Acev and Ercoli, this is their first presence in the top-3 of the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix. While this is also a première for Kozydub and Grimaldi, Esther Nunez is a regular presence in the highest places of the ranking: she was first in 2007 and 2012, second in 2010 and 2011, and third in 2008.

The 2013 FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix was organised in: Rosario, Santa Fe and Parana (the first three races in Argentina), then in Cozumel (MEX), Lac St-Jean and Lac Magog (CAN), and finally in Europe, in Ohrid Lake (MKD) and Capri-Napoli (ITA).