MONTREAL, CANADA — During the first week of August, Montreal will host the world Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) championship in swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. Held every two years for athletes 25 and over, 17,000 competitors are expected this year. And, six are directly from the Midcoast, with two additional having strong ties to the area. 

Facing the toughest competition will be the 45-year-olds: Linda Moran of Hope; her life-long friend Allison Stratis, Dr. Peter Giustra's daughter now from Portland; and Margot Hayes of Montville. They face more than 100 competitors in almost all of their races (though the 200-meter butterfly thins the competition; even if Hayes were last in that race, and she shouldn't be, she would rank 30th in the world).

Dieter Weber of Bremen faces similar competition in the 50 and over age group: 177 competitors in the 50-meter freestlye, 179 in the 100 and, in the 200, a "mere" 97 from 23 different countries.

Among the 60 and 70 year olds, there is still a lot of competition. The Midcoast swimmers are: Ellen O'Donnell, 61, Warren; Susan Rardin, 64, Lincolnville; Kristi Panayotoff, 65, Lincolnville and Bill Jones, 77, Hope. Jones has out-lived much of his competition.

The Penobscot Bay region participants have been getting ready for world championship for some time. Jones, Moran, O'Donnell, Rardin and Weber, the coach, train at PenBay Y in Rockport; Hayes and Rardin train at Waldo County Y in Belfast under coach Susan Cooney, a former Camden High School great. They all swam at the Belfast Y meet in June.

All but Moran, who was in the process of running up Mt. Washington, traveled in July to compete in the Jenny Thompson Meet in Dover, N.H.’s 50-meter outdoor pool. There is no 50-meter pool in Maine. 

The Midcoast World's delegation is part of a 31-swimmer Maine Masters delegation at Montreal. The team has rented a house in Little Italy where many will bunk. Sadly missing from the delegation are several locals who started training but who had to drop out due to various physical or life-competition problems, including: Donna Edelbaum, 81, Union; Frank Giustra, 77, Waldoboro; Peter Giustra, 75, Warren; and Reed Lowden, no age available, Rockland.

Edelbaum and Peter Giustra were shoo-ins for individual medals and were to have been part of two 80-year-old relays that would have had winning chances.

World day will be Thursday, August 7 in Montreal. There will be about 1,300 four-person relay teams swimming 132 heats without break from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

24 of them will be from Maine, half made possible by Midcoast participation. Jones, O'Donnell and Rardin will team up with Hans Wendel, a 78-year-old formerly from Dover-Foxcroft but now living in Hudson, Fla., to make average 70-year-old medley and freestyle mixed relays.

Wendel and Jones will team up with younger men to make 70s men's medley and freestyle relays.

Panayotoff will key the mixed medley and freestyle relays for 60-year-olds. She will join O'Donnell, Rardin and Tish Noyes of Mt. Desert Island for highly ranked women's 60s medley and freestyle relays.

Hayes will swim relays in three different age groups: the mixed medley with the 50-year-olds, mixed freestyle with 40-year-olds, and women's medley & freestyle with 30-year-olds.

With such crowds, actual swims will be spread out in the form of three to eight swims over the course of four to nine days. There will be plenty of time to explore Montreal culture, use the free public-transport passes and savor Montreal food, especially with the team house strategically located in Little Italy, as well as to trade T-shirts with swimmers from far away places.

For more information, visit finamasters2014.org.

The PenBay Pilot sports department can be reached via email at sports@penbaypilot.com.