Gianniotis wins 10K open water race
Source: Agencies |
July 21, 2011, Thursday
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SPYROS Gianniotis of Greece overtook defending champion Thomas Lurz of Germany in the last lap to win the 10-kilometer open water swim at the world championships in Shanghai yesterday and qualify for the London Olympics.
Gianniotis broke free of a pack of swimmers after the final turn and passed Lurz and Britain's Daniel Lee Fogg, who had led for most of the race.
The Greek swimmer finished in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 24.7 seconds. Lurz was 2.5 seconds behind in second place, with Russia's Sergey Bolshakov collecting bronze in 1:54:31.8.
The water temperature for the race at Jinshan City Beach outside Shanghai was 29.2 degrees Celsius, just below the newly recommended limit of 31 degrees Celsius for open water competition.
Gianniotis, who won a silver in the 5-kilometer open water race at the 2009 world championships in Rome, said the water temperature bothered him for the first half of the race, but he started to feel stronger toward the end.
"The race for me was like hell to be honest," he said. "I was not feeling so good at five or six (kilometers). I picked up my pace and at about 9K I felt really good and I said, 'I make my move now.' I was hoping I had a bit more than Thomas."
Lurz, who won the 10-kilometer race in Rome, had battled Fogg and German Andreas Waschburger for the lead for much of the race, but was unable to counter Gianniotis' late sprint.
London Olympics
The top 10 finishers in the race qualified automatically for the 2012 London Olympics. Alex Meyer of the United States finished fourth, followed by Ky Hurst of Australia in fifth.
The other Olympic qualifiers were: Francisco Jose Hervas Jodar of Spain, Brian Ryckeman of Belgium, Julien Sauvage of France, two-time 10-kilometer world champion Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia and Waschburger.
Missing out on a spot for his home Olympics was Fogg, who had opened up a two-body-length lead on the field midway through the race but dropped to 15th place at the finish.
"I just wanted to give it my best and give myself the best opportunity at the end to finish in the top 10 and I think I did that for the first three and a half laps," Fogg said. "I felt comfortable at the front leading, and I obviously knew there were going to be a lot of good swimmers coming up behind me to challenge. I thought I'd be a bit stronger at the end."
Meyer said his thoughts during the race were on his close friend and former teammate, Fran Crippen, who died near the end of a 10-kilometer World Cup event in warm waters in the United Arab Emirates in October. After Meyer noticed that Crippen didn't cross the finish line at the end of that race, he led the search for him. Meyer now carries a photograph of himself holding a picture of Crippen to every race.
"My main goal coming here was to make the Olympic team," he said. "It's kind of a bittersweet moment because Fran's not here. That was a dream we shared to go to the Olympics together and it's not going to happen now."
Gianniotis broke free of a pack of swimmers after the final turn and passed Lurz and Britain's Daniel Lee Fogg, who had led for most of the race.
The Greek swimmer finished in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 24.7 seconds. Lurz was 2.5 seconds behind in second place, with Russia's Sergey Bolshakov collecting bronze in 1:54:31.8.
The water temperature for the race at Jinshan City Beach outside Shanghai was 29.2 degrees Celsius, just below the newly recommended limit of 31 degrees Celsius for open water competition.
Gianniotis, who won a silver in the 5-kilometer open water race at the 2009 world championships in Rome, said the water temperature bothered him for the first half of the race, but he started to feel stronger toward the end.
"The race for me was like hell to be honest," he said. "I was not feeling so good at five or six (kilometers). I picked up my pace and at about 9K I felt really good and I said, 'I make my move now.' I was hoping I had a bit more than Thomas."
Lurz, who won the 10-kilometer race in Rome, had battled Fogg and German Andreas Waschburger for the lead for much of the race, but was unable to counter Gianniotis' late sprint.
London Olympics
The top 10 finishers in the race qualified automatically for the 2012 London Olympics. Alex Meyer of the United States finished fourth, followed by Ky Hurst of Australia in fifth.
The other Olympic qualifiers were: Francisco Jose Hervas Jodar of Spain, Brian Ryckeman of Belgium, Julien Sauvage of France, two-time 10-kilometer world champion Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia and Waschburger.
Missing out on a spot for his home Olympics was Fogg, who had opened up a two-body-length lead on the field midway through the race but dropped to 15th place at the finish.
"I just wanted to give it my best and give myself the best opportunity at the end to finish in the top 10 and I think I did that for the first three and a half laps," Fogg said. "I felt comfortable at the front leading, and I obviously knew there were going to be a lot of good swimmers coming up behind me to challenge. I thought I'd be a bit stronger at the end."
Meyer said his thoughts during the race were on his close friend and former teammate, Fran Crippen, who died near the end of a 10-kilometer World Cup event in warm waters in the United Arab Emirates in October. After Meyer noticed that Crippen didn't cross the finish line at the end of that race, he led the search for him. Meyer now carries a photograph of himself holding a picture of Crippen to every race.
"My main goal coming here was to make the Olympic team," he said. "It's kind of a bittersweet moment because Fran's not here. That was a dream we shared to go to the Olympics together and it's not going to happen now."
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