Men's Open Water Swimming

Open Water Swimming is a new event for the Beijing Olympics. Only the 10km event will be contested at the Olympics. Although 5km and 25km events are also contested at the major championships.

Form

Britain's Alan Bircher finished eighth at the World Championships in the 10km event today.

Qualification

25 swimmers will take part. These will be;

• Top 10 finishers - FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships Seville, Spain Apr. 29 - May 4, 2008
• Top finisher from each of the 5 Continental Championships
• 9 or 10 top finishers from FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier Beijing, China May 31 - June 1, 2008
• One Swimmer from China (host nation) unless already qualified.

What to watch

Open Water Swimming is not a particularly spectator friendly event, but like the marathon and the cycling road races, entry is free (as you can line the route). Whether we attend will depend on what we have tickets for on that day.