BBC Radio 5 Live's Bob Ballard |
  Patten (right) finished behind Ilchenko for the second successive year
IOC president Jacques Rogge has made it clear that he wants the Olympic schedule streamlined in the future, hence the disappearance of baseball and softball.So it might come as a surprise to some that the swimming programme has expanded. Not, as some had forecast and wanted, with the inclusion of the 50m events (the freestyle is already in there) but open water. The splash and dash of the sprints are dramatic but so too is the 10k event which makes its debut in Beijing. The hardy souls from last year's World Championships in Melbourne will point out that they were "true" open water conditions. Jellyfish stinging them, other marine life disturbed from their slumbers, effluent in various degrees and plenty of other unmentionables. In August the swimmers will be competing on a rowing lake where the quality of the water will be carefully controlled and tides will not be a consideration.  | It is every man for himself and occasionally strong-armed tactics come into play |
That plays into the hands of the pool swimmers and, as the event is in the week after the main aquatic disciplines, many of the big names have decided to have a crack at winning a first gold medal in the 10k. Grant Hackett from Australia and Britain's David Davies, gold and bronze medallists from the 1500m freestyle in Athens, have extended their range over six times that distance. But the first real indication of how that duel might turn out came at the weekend in the World Championships in Seville. That head-to-head in Beijing is no longer a possibility as Hackett was disqualified, whereas the Briton missed out on gold by a third of a second. Davies was pipped to the touch pad by Vladimir Dyatchnin of Russia. It was only the Welshman's second swim over this distance and so far the record reads won once, second once. He has to be a really good medal contender in this event, along with the 1500m freestyle at the Olympics and, just like his performances over 30 lengths of the pool, he is learning all the time.  Davies has adapted well to the rigours of open water |
Nobody in British swimming analyses and tweaks their swims more than the 23-year-old, who now trains at Loughborough University and he will have learned from the Russian's tactics in Seville. Davies will decide later this week if he wants to do the 10k event in Beijing. He won't want it to detract from his 1500m freestyle swim, which is the priority, but my hunch is that he will want to be involved in the second week of competition. One thing he has already discovered is that there is no standing on ceremony in open water swimming. It is every man for himself and occasionally strong-armed tactics come into play, and knowing how to cut off your opponent at those all important turns can make all the difference. The same applies, equally, in the women's event and here Britain has not one, but two swimmers who are capable of getting medals in Beijing. Cassie Patten followed up her silver at last year's World Championships, with another second placed finish in Spain. Last year she was a finger tip away from displacing Larisa Ilchenko, this time is was just over three seconds that separated the Stockport-based swimmer and the Russian. That will a battle to savour when they get to China. | BBC OLYMPICS BLOG |
Don't write off Keri-Anne Payne's chances of making the top three. Patten's team-mate in the north-west was eighth this time around to claim her Olympic place. She was only six seconds from taking bronze, and in a race that lasts over two hours, that is a recoverable margin. In essence, whilst things are looking encouraging in the pool for Great Britain, they are even brighter where our open water swimmers are concerned.
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