Keri-Anne Payne Going For Gold

The 2012 Olympic Games in London will see Team GB swimmer Keri-Anne Payne take to the open water in Hyde Park for the 10k Open Water Swim marathon.

A Beijing Olympics 2008 Silver medallist and double Open Water World Cup Gold medallist, Keri-Anne Payne is not only our only open water competitor, but she is also the firm favourite to take gold.

With all of Britain and the rest of the world focusing on the London 2012 Games you can only imagine the pressures a competitor like Keri-Anne Payne must be feeling. We love our open water swimming, but Keri-Anne devotes herself to her sport, getting up at 6am most mornings to train, mainly at indoor pools.

“I knew this was what I was going to do when I was older”

Like most Olympic athletes, Keri-Anne Payne started swimming when she was young and persevered in her ambitions to race competitively on a world stage. She races all around the world, but this year holds a special honour to race as part of the GB Team at the London 2012 Olympics. The 10k open water marathon is a punishing endurance test and was introduced at the last Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, it’s a new sport among the long established swimming events that will take place in the Aquatics Centre.

The 10k Marathon takes place on August 9th (Women’s) and 10th (Men’s) at the Serpentine in Hyde Park. We are obviously excited to see how Keri-Anne Payne does and wish her all the best. Keri-Anne Payne is an ambassador for British Gas and promotes British Gas’s Great Swims that take place all around the country. She will be taking part in our very own Great North Swim at Lake Windermere on 22nd-24th June 2012