The BBC reported that British Swimming is planning a rematch with USA Swimming in a second Duel in the Pool II.

The first Duel in the Pool was held in Manchester where Michael Phelps helped lead the American team over the combined European team in December.

According to the BBC, British Swimming has cancelled its 2010 Open Championships to focus on staging another Duel in the Pool event which was a sporting and commercial success for all involved. British Swimming is “currently exploring opportunities to build on that success by providing another showcase event in Britain with further details of the event for the 2010 calendar will be announced at a later date.”

Thinking way outside the box, there is one intriguing possibility:

Because the British Open Championships were scheduled to take place in July, this may be an absolutely wonderful opportunity to add an open water swimming event to the Duel in the Pool schedule. In July, the open water would be warm enough in England to stage an open water swim to the schedule. It would be wonderful to see the American, British and European teams go at it in an Open Water Pursuit race or a mano-a-mano contest somewhere in England.

From open water swimming’s perspective, it would be great to see either a team or solo race that showcased athletes like Chloe Sutton vs. Keri-Anne Payne vs. Angela Maurer and Fran Crippen vs. David Davies vs. Thomas Lurz.

Leading up to the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim at the 2012 London Olympics, whatta outstanding race that would be. Given all the British interest in open water swimming and its bevy of stars, along with the established German stars and up-and-coming Americans, this match race in the open water could also be very likely be a sporting and commercial success like the pool races.

Upper photo by Simon Wright who organized a Great Britain Swim Stars Photo Exhibition in February.

Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones