Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Lake Ainsworth awaits open water swimmers
05 February 2019 Madisyn Armstrong and Jade Slee will attend the 2019 open water camp.
Capitalising on the momentum from the 2019 Australian Open Water Championships, Swimming Australia will host its annual development camp for the country’s emerging open water swimmers.

Kicking off this Sunday 10 February, 17 young athletes aged between 15-19 years old will take part in the four-day open water camp, which will be held on the beautiful northern beaches of NSW and Lake Ainsworth.

Lake Ainsworth will host the open water development camp this year.
Beautiful Lake Ainsworth will play host to this year’s camp.
Now in its sixth year, the camp has previously taken place in Mooloolaba, Lake Conjola and Lennox Heads, and has provided key learning opportunities for senior open water swimmers including Nick Sloman, Kai Edwards, Hayden Cotter, Chloe Gubecka, Phoebe Hines and Mackenzie Brazier.

After receiving gold in the Boy’s 16-year-old 7.5km event at the recent national champs in Adelaide, Miami’s Ruben Rees has been invited to participate this year, along with Kawana Waters’ Madisyn Armstrong, who took out the title in the Girl’s 19-year-olds 10km open water event.

Other members of the camp include Miami’s Jade Slee and Daniel Miller, as well as Byron Kimber and Jake Wilson from the Breakers WA Swim Club.

With 20 years of experience, veteran Open Water Coach Greg Towle will run the camp alongside fellow coach Raelene Ryan, while former elite open water swimmer Trudee Stafford will be in attendance. Keeping a watchful eye over the program will also be the GM of Pathways at Swimming Australia, Jamie Salter.

Ruben Rees will attend this year’s open water camp.
Ruben Rees took home the gold medal in the Boy’s 16-year-old 7.5km race at the 2019 Open Water Champs in Adelaide.
Swimmers will train exclusively on the 12.4-hectare lake – an unprecedented open water training facility – where they’ll learn key open water racing skills. The program incorporates hard distance training sessions, technical and tactical sessions which focusing on pack swimming, feeding, pacing, turning buoy navigation and sighting, before culminating in race simulations.

Importantly, detailed training monitoring and performance analysis will be provided using wearable and drone technology.

Not only will the team improve their skills in the water, but they’ll also learn about key nutritional requirements from dietitian Stephanie Cronin, while performance psychologist, Elise Bereza, will be on hand to help them understand the significant mental challenges that occur with open water racing.

In addition, physiotherapist Greg Fyffe will educate the athletes on how to keep their body race-ready when travelling and competing in foreign open water environments around the world. This will be vital, as the Junior Development team heads to France in May to compete in the French Open Water Nationals.

Held in Brive la Gaillarde, the program of events will include a 10km race, a 4 x 1250m relay event, a 5km event.

List of athletes attending the 2019 Open Water Development camp:

Males

Riley Clout (Palm Beach Currumbin)

James Otley Doe (TSS Aquatic)

Daniel Miller (Miami)

Matthew Galea (Blacktown)

Lachlan Schwarz (Melbourne Vicentre)

Bryon Kimber (Breakers WA Swim Club)

Ruben Rees (Miami)

Jack Wilson (Breakers WA Swim Club)

Luke Matthews (Bayside Swim Club)

Females

Jade Slee (Miami)

Madisyn Armstrong (Kawana Waters)

Isabelle Tran (Carlile)

Hayley Rowlands (Revesby Workers)

Kelsey Eastwood (City of Perth)

Ashley Finegan (UNSW)

Jessica Mouatt (Nudgee)

Georgia Watkins (Surrey Park)
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