Courtesy of WOWSA, Hojo Beach, Tateyama, Japan.

The 2014 Pan Pacific Games 10 km marathon swim on Hojo Beach in Tateyama, Japan will be a great race to watch with the open water swimming stars of Australia, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, China, Argentina, Bahamas, Cook Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Palau, Peru, Philippines, and Thailand competing in a 2020 Tokyo Olympics preview.

There may be other fast swimmers competing from other countries and perhaps even some veteran pool swimmers who may want to try an internationally competitive 10 km race in warm, flat waters along an easy-to-navigate course. Each national team has a maximum of 30 men and women, but each country can enter an unlimited number of swimmers in each event including the 10 km race on August 14th.

“The women’s race is going to be particularly fascinating with Haley Anderson on a roll, but she will swim head-to-head against long-time rivals Ana Marcela Cunha and Ashley Twichell. Each of them are individual world champions, currently on top of their game,” commented Steven Munatones.

“On the men’s side, it will be interesting to see if Japan’s Yasunari Hirai can keep pace with Jordan Wilimovsky. Jordan will hang with the back for the front half of the race, but then has the stamina and speed to pull away in the back half. But Yasu will be swimming in his home surf in front of the Japanese media and influential and powerful people in the Japanese swimming world so he will have plenty of motivation.”

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Race Update: Yasunari Hirai will not participate in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He was ill during the Japanese qualification race and did not participate in the selection race.

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