Per British Swimming’s qualification criteria for the 2019 FINA Open Water World Championships, Jack Burnell and Alice Dearing have wrapped up their roster spots for Gwangju, Korea with their performances at the opening leg of the FINA Marathon Swim World Series last week.
British Swimming 2019 World Open Water Championships Selection Criteria
As part of a 6-member squad who competed in Doha, Burnell finished 12th overall, despite incurring a leg injury at the end of 2018. The 2016 Olympian, who was disqualified for an in-race scuffle with Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, redeemed himself somewhat at the 2017 edition of the World Championships with a 4th place finish.
For the women, Loughborough University swimmer Dearing earned 34th place overall, taking the highest finish among the Brits, to land her spot on the Gwangju line-up. The 21-year-old won the World Junior Championships in 2016 and also finished first among Brits at last summer’s European Championships in Glasgow.
Final selections for the World Championships will take place after the Great North Swim at the start of June.
From the article “the 2016 Olympian, who was disqualified for an in-race scuffle with Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, redeemed himself somewhat at the 2017 edition of the World Championships with a 4th place finish”.
This is very unfair. Mellouli got away with a “professional foul” on Burnell about 500m from the finish so blaming Burnell for getting disqualified is a bit much. He absolutely should not have been disqualified.
Both the men’s and women’s open water races at Rio were a joke with the finish set-up.