Great Britain team selected for final leg of open water world cup

Eight British swimmers are heading to Funchal, Portugal for the final leg of the World Aquatics Open Water Cup 2023 next month.

The competition takes place on the weekend of 2-3 December and brings an end to a productive year for the British distance-swimming programme.

It will be Great Britain’s final open water selection event for February’s World Aquatics Championships in Doha with City of Sheffield athlete Amber Keegan and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Hector Pardoe already reaching the qualification times for Qatar after their top 20 finishes at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.

Keegan will line up in the women’s events in Portugal alongside University of Bath swimmer Leah Crisp, Wycombe Districts Ella Dyson and Loughborough University’s Alice Dearing.

Dyson comes into the competition after a fourth place finish in the 10km race at the European Junior Open Water Championships whilst Dearing continues her return to international competition as she looks to make a second consecutive Olympic Games appearance next summer.

Alongside Pardoe on the men’s side, Toby Robinson returns to the squad as he looks to reach Qatar after missing out on the World Championships in Japan in the summer.

They’ll be joined by former Hatfield swimmer and now Swim Wales High Performance Centre trained Nathan Hughes whilst Dan Jervis who moves from the pool to open water after his strong displays in the 800m and 1500m Freestyle at the World Championships.

Ahead of the competition, British Swimming’s Performance Pathway Lead for Swimming, Nathan Hilton said: “This event is our final selection race for the 2024 Doha World Championships and with eight British athletes attending the event, our team will be competitive.

“With many other nations using the event as their selection race/final prep race for Doha, it will be a very strong race but I am confident that the athletes will rise to the challenge and continue the positive upward trend we have seen from our marathon swimmers over the last 12 months.”