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NCYAC Men Take National 10K
Open Water Championship

by Barry Silver
NCYAC Sports Writer

The senior men of the New Canaan YMCA Aquatic Club (NCY) swam to victory in the USA Swimming National 10-Kilometer Open Water Swimming Championship, held at Huntington Bay, Long Island on Sunday, July 9. With three of its four swimmers placing in the top seven, Coach Mike Krein’s team finished with the fastest combined time to take the men’s team championship.

Open water swimming takes place in bodies of water such as lakes, bays or oceans. In this case, the race was held on a repetitive course marked out in Long Island Sound. In addition to the distance of the swim, the athletes are challenged by low water temperature, tides and sea conditions. No special protective gear may be worn, other than the usual swimsuits, caps and goggles.

Neville Mitchell, captured fifth place with a time of 2 hours, 39 minutes and 40 seconds in an exciting sprint to the finish. Also for NCYAC, David Karabin came in sixth at 2:45:44 and Nicholas Libertiny was seventh with a time of 2:47:44. Teammate Matt Harrington was unable to complete the race, in which water temperature was recorded as low as 68 degrees.

Coach Krein, describing a "tremendous" performance, reported: "There was a strong outgoing tide during the second lap and the water started to get choppy. They really felt it on the second lap. It was a test of will, training and swimming ability."

In addition to the team recognition for NCYAC, Mitchell, Karabin and Libertiny all qualified individually for Pre-Olympic Long Distance Open Water Training Camp, to be held August 31 through September 5 in Virginia Beach, with expenses paid by USA Swimming, the national governing body for competitive swimming.

For more background information on USA Swimming’s Open Water competitions, refer to http://www.usa-swimming.org/openwater/index.html