DOHA, Qatar – Four Canadian open water swimmers are making their final preparations in Doha, Qatar, where the World Aquatics Championships are set to begin Saturday.
The women’s 10-km marathon starts at 10:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. ET) Saturday at the Old Doha Port, followed by the men at the same time Sunday.
Olympic qualification spots are on the line. At least the top 13 swimmers in each of the men’s and women’s 10-km marathon races will book their tickets for Paris 2024. They’ll join the medallists who qualified from last year’s worlds, as well as an additional representative from each of the five continents, with host country France guaranteed at least one spot for a total of 21 or 22 in each race.
The four-swimmer team transferred to Doha Monday after a weeklong staging camp at the Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya, Turkey.
“It was a wonderful place to stage, they’ve got really good staff, a really good complex, great facilities and great access,” said Swimming Canada Distance/Open Water Coach Mark Perry, head coach of the open water team. “We had very good prep, the athletes are all in pretty good shape so it’s just recovering a little bit from travelling to here and looking forward to racing now.”
Canada features experience on the men’s side. Victoria’s Eric Hedlin, 30, is a two-time world medallist in the 5-km distance and 26-year-old Hau-Li Fan finished ninth in the 10-km at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“I’ve been training well, feeling well and sleeping well so I’m very excited and confident for this race,” said Fan, who has been training at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver since last summer after taking a six-month break. “The mental work is the most important at this point.”
“It’s just about putting together everything that we’ve been working on through the season. This year it was all about increasing volume from last year because I had pretty inconsistent training last year,” Hedlin said. “I put a really good block of training in December, early January and I’ve been feeling really good. I had a (training) set in Turkey that contends for the best that I’ve ever had.”
For the women, 18-year-old Emma Finlin will be making the third world championships appearance of her young career while Laila Oravsky, who turns 17 later this month, is making her worlds debut.
“For the past six or so months, it’s been mostly open water focus going into this since it’s an Olympic event,” said Finlin.
The Edmonton native swam personal bests in the pool at last year’s worlds, and recently lowered the Canadian short-course record in the 1,500-m freestyle. She’s also coming off a sixth-place finish in the 10-km open water marathon at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games in October.
“I want to get one of those 18 spots for the Olympics, but that’s just my big goal. If I don’t it’s just another cool experience in open water,” Finlin said.
“It’s been a lot of fun getting to learn a lot from Hau-Li and Eric and also Emma getting to train with them and be in a different environment,” added Oravsky, who trains mostly in a 25-m pool with the Barrie (Ont.) Trojans. “I’m really excited to be in my first world championships but also just trying to learn as much as I can.”
The team staff also includes Hedlin’s coach Ryan Clouston from UVic Pacific Coast Swimming, Swim Nova Scotia Executive Director Bette El-Hawary as team manager, and Olympic medallist Andrea Nugent as massage therapist.
Competition continues with the 5-km races Wednesday and the mixed 4×1,500-m relay Thursday. The eight-day pool meet begins Feb. 11.
ADVISORY: Open water team members may be available for interview by request. Please contact Nathan White nwhite@swimming.ca