Great Swim performances secure places at Kazan for Hughes, Allen and Dearing

Three more swimmers have been added to the GB open water team sheet for Kazan following strong performances in the qualifying 5km races at the Great North Swim at the weekend. 

Caleb Hughes, Tom Allen and Alice Dearing join Keri-anne Payne, Danielle Huskisson, Jack Burnell and Dan Fogg, who have already been selected to represent Great Britain in the 10km marathon swim. Hughes, Allen and Dearing will compete in the 5km event.

The Great North Swim elite 5km event was one of the highlights of three days of swimming last weekend at Windermere, giving amateur swimmers and spectators the opportunity to see elite swimmers in action. As well as being a qualifying event for the World Championships in Kazan, for the junior UK swimmers the event was also a qualifier for the European Championships. Both men’s and women’s races also attracted stars from the international circuit, including Christine Jennings and Lexie Kelly from the US, Alex Studzinski from Germany and Rhys Mainstone from Australia.
The race was run to FINA rules, with no wetsuits. Water temperature was 16.5 degrees Celsius. “The conditions were challenging with the water temperature being fairly low but the swimmers stood up to the challenge,” said British Swimming Marathon Swimming Lead Bernie Dietzig.
In the women’s race Christine Jennings from the US took first place in 57:37:6. UK junior Alice Dearing was second in 57:40:0 and Sophie Evans was third in 57:41.6. In the men’s race Caleb Hughes broke Tom Allen’s lead to finish in 53:48:0. Allen finished in 53:52:4. Ireland’s Chris Bryan was third in 54:08:2.
“Alice Dearing displayed great determination and relied on her strength and experience to finish as top Brit in the women’s race,” said Dietzig. “The men’s race turned into a display of open water racing dynamics with a number of the guys challenging for the selection spots. Tom Allen took the race out at a solid pace but it was Caleb Hughes who out-swam everyone and finished four seconds ahead of Tom Allen as top Brit and overall winner.”