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On July 14 th, the 5 th Long Distance World Cup took place in Evian, France. The 25 K race was from Evian to Lausanne (accross Lac Leman) and back to Evian. 50 swimmers from 19 countries took part in the race.
Canada picked up the team Bronze medal behind Australia and France. The Canadian team consisted of two rookies, Liam Weseloh, NYAC and Heidi Levasseur, UL and two veterans Alex Leduc UL and Nathalie Sauvageau, CAMO.
In only his 2nd 25 K race, Liam was the highest individual placing Canadian. He raced to a 5 th place finish in a time of 5h 38m 41s. Alex Leduc swam to a 10th place among men (12 th overall). Heidi was 24 th among the women and Nathalie finished 17th.
Weseloh and his coach Linda Kiefer from University of Toronto, took advantage of recently retired World Champion Greg Streppel's expertise. "We are very grateful for Greg's help this summer. Since we decided to try the 25 K race, both Liam and I have talked with Greg several times for help. He has always been willing to answer all of our questions and being new to this sport, there were a lot of questions."
The Canadian Long Distance team is looking forward to the Pan Pacific Championships in Japan next summer and the upcoming World Championships in Perth Australia, in January 1998. At the FINA Congress this summer it was decided to add a 5 K swim at the next World Championships.