Team USA's Anderson, Gemmell Sweep Pan Pacs Open Water Titles

Team USA’s Anderson, Gemmell Sweep Pan Pacs Open Water Titles

Pan Pacs, Junior Pan Pacs open water 10Ks held Sunday in Maui

MAUI, Hawaii – U.S. Olympians Haley Anderson (Granite Bay, Calif.) and Andrew Gemmell (Wilmington, Del.) raced to the Pan Pacific Championships 10-kilometer open water titles Sunday at Ulua Beach.

In the tightly contested women’s race, Anderson out-touched U.S. teammate Eva Fabian (Keene, N.H.) for gold by one second. Anderson was victorious in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 51 seconds; Fabian earned silver in 1:59.52. Chelsea Gubecka of Australia was awarded bronze after finishing in 1:59.54.

Gemmell pulled away from the men’s field down the stretch to earn gold in 1:51:11, nearly a minute clear of runner-up Jarrod Poort of Australia, who touched in 1:52.12. Kane Radford of New Zealand was third in 1:52.13.

With the victories today, Team USA has swept the men’s and women’s 10K gold medals at each Pan Pacs open water competition contested – 2006, 2010 and 2014.

Originally scheduled for Aug. 25 in Gold Coast, Australia, the event was relocated due to water quality issues and contested in conjunction with the Junior Pan Pacific Championships 10K. With the three open water medals earned today, Team USA wraps up 2014 Pan Pacs with 43 medals – 16 gold, 13 silver, 14 bronze – across pool and open water competition.

Pan Pacific Championships rules limit a country to two swimmers among the top eight scoring positions. In the women’s race, Team USA’s Becca Mann (Homer Glenn, Ill.) finished in 1:59.53, and Christine Jennings (Longmont, Colo.) touched in 1:59.57. Additional U.S. men’s finishers included Alex Meyer (Ithaca, N.Y.), who was fifth in 1:53.00, and Jordan Wilimovsky (Santa Monica, Calif.), who finished in 1:54.00.

The U.S. clinched the team title with 29 points. Complete results can be found here.

In Sunday’s junior open water races, the U.S. added two more medals – gold in the men’s race from Brendan Casey of Team Santa Monica (1:58.00) and bronze in the women’s event from Regan Kology of Somerset YMCA (2:03.25).

Sunday’s open water competition wrapped a successful Junior Pan Pacs for Team USA. The Americans led all nations with 47 overall medals and 27 gold medals in the pool competition. Andrew Seliskar (McLean, Va.) of Nation’s Capital Swim Club and Sierra Schmidt (Erdenheim, Pa.) of North Baltimore Aquatic Club were honored as swimmers of the meet.

Complete Junior Pan Pacific Championships meet information, results and race videos can be found here.

AUSTRALIA SWIMMING PRESS RELEASE

Marathon swim delivers silver lining for Poort and Hull

On the final day of the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, the swimmers swapped the Kihei Aquatic Centre for the shores of Ulua Beach in Maui to cheer on the competitors in the 10km marathon race.

Australia has a rich history in open water swimming and today continued that tradition with a total of four medals from four events in Hawaii.

One week after their original race was postponed on the Gold Coast due to poor water quality, the senior swimmers finally got the chance to race for the title of Pan Pacific Champion for 2014.

In the senior men’s division, the Australian trio of Jarrod Poort, Rhys Mainstone and Simon Huitenga were all looking for a place on the podium in a hotly contested field.

There was little separating the lead pack and as the swimmers approached the finish gate Poort was forced to resort to a sprint finish in order to secure the silver medal.

The Wollongong based swimmer who trains under Ron McKeon managed to hit the gate in a time of 1:52:12.00 to sneak into second place ahead of Kane Radford (1:52:13.00) from New Zealand with the bronze.

Also in the lead pack but just being out-touched for a podium position by one second was West Australian Huitenga in fourth with 1:52:14.00 while Mainstone was sixth in 1:55:00.00.

The gold medal went to Andrew Gemmell from the USA in 1:51:11.00.

In the junior event Lachlan Colquhoun was hot on the heels of the senior pack and held onto the group until the late stages of the race.

The 18-year-old left nothing in the tank and finished with the bronze medal in his division with a time of 1:58:35.00 just behind Brendan Casey from the USA in 1:58:00.00 and Jon McKay of Canada in 1:58:01.00.

Fellow Aussie Brett Fielding was just behind in eighth position stopping the clock at 2:05:47.00.

At just 15-years-of-age West Australia’s Grace Hull (2:03:13.00) also proved her potential in the open water race, picking up a silver medal in the junior girl’s 10km event.

Hull finished just behind Yukima Moriyama from Japan in 2:00:00.00 with Regan Kology from the USA rounding out the top three in 2:03:25.00.

Hull said that although she was surprised with the silver, she knew that she had a solid preparation leading into the trip.

“My training has been much more open water focussed this year and I guess that’s paid off, Hull said.

It was a lot flatter out there than I expected and I just went for it, I thought I had finished fourth so to get onto the podium in second place and take home the silver medal is incredible.”

The teenager’s open water talent is obvious but Hull said she doesn’t want to turn her back on the pool just yet.

“I’m still quite young so I think I’ll keep my options open and train for both pool and open water and just see where it takes me.”

Hull’s teammate Sacha Downing finished just outside the medals in fifth place, hitting the gate in 2:03:41.00.

In the senior women’s 10km event, and also just 15-years-of-age, Chelsea Gubecka once again impressed to bag the bronze medal in a time of 1:59:52.00. Gubecka was just three seconds behind the eventual winner Hayley Anderson from the USA in 1:59:51.00, a great sign for Gubecka’s future.

The silver medal went to Fabian Eva also from the USA while Australian teammates Kareena Lee (1:59:56.00) and Jessica Walker (2:00:54.00) finished fourth and seventh respectively.

Following the open water event, the Australian Junior team will take home 18 medals in total made up of two gold, ten silver and six bronze.

Medal Tally

GOLD = 2

Girl’s 100m Freestyle (Shayna Jack), Girl’s 4x100m Freestyle relay (S Jack, L McJannett, S Taylor, C Gillett)

SILVER = 10

Girl’s 200m Freestyle (Shayna Jack), Girl’s 800m Freestyle (Sacha Downing), Girl’s 100m Freestyle (Chelsea Gillett), Girl’s 400m Freestyle (Tamsin Cook), Girl’s 100m Butterfly (C Licciardi), Boy’s 50m Freestyle (Blake Jones), Girl’s 1500m Freestyle (Moesha Johnson), Girl’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay (S Jack, C Gillett, S Taylor, T Cook), Boy’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (V Dai, B McCarthy, B Negri, B Jones), 10km Open water (Grace Hull)

BRONZE = 6

Girl’s 400m Individual Medley (Tianni Gilmour), Boy’s 400m Freestyle (Josh Parrish), Girl’s 50m Freestyle (Lucy McJannett), Boy’s 200m Breaststroke (Matthew Wilson), Boy’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay (J Hansford, S Young, D Fyfe, J Parrish), 10km Open Water (Lachlan Colquhoun)

Swimming Australia is the national sporting organisation which is responsible for the promotion and development of swimming in Australia at all levels. Home of the Australian Swim Team, Swimming Australia is recognised as one of the leaders in Australian sport and has almost 90,000 members and just over 1,000 swimming clubs nationwide. For more information visit www.swimming.org.au

Versant Media Privacy Policy

CA Notice

SportsEngine Terms & Conditions