Who's Who on the Swimming World Magazine Cover

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Among the dozens of pool and open water swimming stars on the front cover of the November issue of Swimming World Magazine, one can see Eva Fabian (in red cap) standing to the right of Dawn Heckman (purple cap) and to the left of John Flanagan (light blue cap) Noa Sakamoto (light gray cap), Chip Peterson (black cap), Evgeny Bezruchenko (orange cap) and Brendan Capell (green cap on the far right).




Read about the 9th annual RCP Tiburon Mile in this month's Swimming World Magazine. To date, the swim has contributed more than $650,000 to Special Olympics as well as supporting "Hospice By The Bay," as local Bay Area charity.

Race founder Bob Placak provides the elite athletes with personalized caps of different colors in order to help the media and spectators to locate the different stars as they battle each other in San Francisco Bay.

Cover photo and swim cap photo by >Elliot Karlan who shot the entire Tiburon Mile. Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Hawaii Open Water Swimming Hall of Famers

Today, the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame will induct 17 aquatic athletes in its 2008 ceremonies. Part of the Hawaii Swimming Legacy Project, the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame has eight categories: Ocean Swimmers, Channel Swimmers, Swimmers, Water Polo, Coaches, Masters Swimming, Diving and Contributors.

In the Ocean Swimmers and Channel Swimmers categories, famed Keo Nakama and Dr. Harry Huffaker were inducted in 2002.

In 2003, Morris "Mo" Matthews, Diane Stowell, Fred Trask and Jim Welch were similarly honored.

In 2005, Robin Isayama (shown above) and Carl Kawauchi were honored as Channel Swimmers and Kaili Chun and John Flanagan were honored as Ocean Swimmers.

This year, Betty Ann Barnett, a 2006 FINA World Swimmer and holder of several world and U.S. masters records, James Caldwell, the first solo swimmer across the Auau and Pailolo Channels, Linda Kaiser (shown to the left), who has swum seven of the channels in Hawaii, and Mike Spalding, the first to swim the Kaulakahi and Kealaikahiki Channels among his seven channel swims, will be honored.

Kaiser recalled her 1990 swim between Maui and Molokai Islands across the 8.5-mile Palilolo Channel, when she swam something from the depths racing straight for her.

"All of sudden I thought, 'Oh, that's a shark. He just kept coming straight up, and I said to myself, 'Ooh, this may not be good,'" as the 12-foot shark circle a number of times beneath her before moving on.

These Hall of Famers are indeed made of something special.

Upper photo of Robin Isayama from the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame.

Lower photo of Linda Kaiser by the late Sergio Goes of the Honolulu Magazine.

Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Sakamoto and Flanagan Go 1-2 in Ironman Swim

Noa Sakamoto and John Flanagan, both former Waikiki Roughwater Swim winners, went 1-2 in the swim portion of the Ironman Triathlon today in Kona, Hawaii.

Although Sakamoto and Flanagan just competed in the 63°F waters of San Francisco Bay without wetsuits in the RCP Tiburon Mile, they both wore XTERRA Velocity Speedsuits to post blazing fast swim splits (47:01 and 47:02 respectively) at the Ford Ironman World Championships.


Sakamoto placed 13th in the 18-24 age-group division with swim-bike-run splits of 47:01, 5:39:59 and 3:42:34 to finish 431st overall in 10:15:44 (out of 1,731). Flanagan placed 10th in the 30-34 age-group division with swim-bike-run splits of 47:02, 5:15:03 and 3:13:50 to finish 78th overall in 9:22:33.

Lower photo of Noa Sakamoto by Deborah Booker of The Honolulu Advertiser. Upper photo of John Flanagan by Fl Morris of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

"Next Grant Hackett" Wins Waikiki Roughwater Swim

19-year-old Australian Trent Grimsey, who swam a 15:12.36 1500-meter freestyle at the 2008 Australian Olympic Swimming Trials, has found his niche in the Pacific, as he dominated the 39th annual Waikiki Roughwater Swim. Earlier this year, Grimsey also won the 2008 Oceania 10K Open Water Championships earlier this year in New Zealand.

Grimsey led a 1-2-3 Australian sweep in the men's race, winning the swim across Waikiki in 47 minutes 59 seconds. Grimsey took off from the start and won going away. "I kept looking around, thinking I went off course."

"Trent could be [Australia's] next Grant Hackett," said distant second-place Josh Minogue finisher. "He's really good. This is not surprising to us to see him that far ahead."

Brendan Capell placed third with a time of 52:27. John Flanagan of Honolulu was fourth in 53:45, Alex Kostich of California was fifth in 52:54, and defending champion Noa Sakamoto of Honolulu was sixth in 53:12.

Similarly, Luane Rowe from Sydney convincingly won the women's division, finishing eighth overall and more than eight minutes ahead of the second-place woman. "It's hard not to get distracted. The water is so clear, and you can see all the fish."

"The Australians were very, very impressive," Flanagan said. "Two of the guys just took off in the beginning, and I knew there was no way to catch them."

The other 740 swimmers from around the world who finished the race also thought so.

Photo of Waikiki Roughwater Swim wave starts from Swim Without Borders.