Neptune-Benson, the leading manufacturer of commercial pool filtration systems, has announced that their Defender filter has yet again been chosen for use on the US Olympic Team Trials pools in Omaha, Nebraska.
Related: Neptune Benson Profile / Neptune-Benson: 5 New Defender® Filter Installations in Australia / Chimelong first waterpark in China to use Neptune-Benson Defender® Filters
The manufacturers of the competition and warm-up pools, Myrtha Pools, have worked with Neptune-Benson for many years. The Defender filter offers Myrtha Pools a number of advantages over traditional sand filters:
- The Defender filter requires only a quarter of the footprint required for traditional sand filters. Myrtha Pools have used the additional space to house the filter room below the pool deck, with no need to build a separate mechanical room.
- The Defender filters particles as small as 1 micron, creating the cleanest, healthiest and fastest competition water possible.
- The Defender offers impressive environmental and economic benefits, cutting consumption of water by 90%, chemicals by 30% and energy by 50%.
The world-class Greater Richmond Aquatics Partnership (GRAP) Aquatic 
Center in Chesterfield, Virginia, home of Poseidon Swimming, is the location of the 2008 Olympic Trials pool facility. The winning combination of Myrtha manufactured pools and the two Defender filters used helped the US’s top swimmers gain 9 world records, 21 national records and 17 US Open records. The GRAP center is now also adding a third Defender filter for the warm-up pool.
Former 2008 Olympic Trials competitor Stuart Ferguson said of the 2008 Trials competition pool, “This is easily the fastest pool in the world, and I can’t wait to dive in the next time I’m home.”
This year’s competition pool and Defender filter are expected to be located somewhere in the greater Boston area. An agreement reached between Myrtha Pools and Charles River Aquatics (CRA) means that this pool will help CRA fulfil their remit to provide swimming and aquatic based fitness opportunities and tuition in the area, across all abilities, from those learning to swim right up to world class athletes.
Charles River Aquatics President Mike Morawski says, “This pool is quite simply the greenest and best available on the market today. To offer this pool to the New England Swimming community is a source of great pride for our entire staff."
