The 2014 edition of the Bergen Swim Festival will be once again be in short course meters, thanks to a delay in the construction of Norway’s new 50m facility that is set to become the new host of this meet, but that shouldn’t mean any shortage of top-level participants.
The meet, billed as “Scandanavia’s coolest swim meet,” will run from May 23rd-25th and attract the likes of South African Cameron van der Burgh, Hungarian Daniel Gyurta, Denmark’s Rikke Moeller Pedersen, and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu.
There’s a lot of breaststrokers in that group and its no surprise: in 2013, the meet has become almost an homage to fallen Norwegian swimmer Alexander Dale Oen, who died while on a training trip to Arizona in 2012: a swimmer who was among the greats in Norwegian history.
The meet is held at the Sentralbadet in Bergen, Norway, which is located on the country’s western coast (opposite of its capital Norway). This meet will serve as one final ‘farewell’ to the Sentralbadet arena.
Also scheduled to attend the meet so far are several of Norway’s Danish friends. In addition to Moeller-Pedersen, that includes Jeanette Ottesen, Mie Nielsen, and the Faroe Islands’ Pal Joensen. Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand and Simon Sjodin from Sweden will also come, rounding out a rich northern European field.
More information about the meet can be found on its official website here.
It’s a shame that they don’t run the 25m freestyle any more, pretty sure Nystrand would have a good chance of swimming sub-10
It’s a shame for BSF it’s not long course this year, but I’m sure it will still be a great meet. I went to the 2011 edition and it was a fantastic experience for spectators, and a great example of how swimming can be made exciting and attractive. Denmark could learn a lot from our northern neighbours in this area, hopefully the success of Herning will focus minds a bit on how to make our domestic meets more exciting and interesting and attract spectators who aren’t swimmers/swimmer’s parents.
And one minor correction, despite being the RMP cheerleader that I am, I have to point out she’s the third fastest ever over 200 breast SCM, unless of course we are already… Read more »