15 (or possibly 16) individuals will qualify for the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim finals at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships to be held in May in Seville, Spain.
In Seville, the women’s 10K competition will be on May 3rd and the men’s 10K race will be on May 4th, both starting at 10 am.
Grant Hackett, the Australian sensation, and others are already in Spain making their final preparations.
What will be their race strategy?
What kind of swim suit will they wear?
When will they feed?
What happens if the race pace is fast…what happens if it is slow?
So many questions and so little information will make this race fascinating on numerous levels.
What is certain is that these races will have 15 (or 16) “winners”. That is, 15 (or 16) men and 15 (or 16) women will earn their automatic spots in the historic first Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.
There are 52 athletes entered on the men’s side from 32 countries and 37 athletes on the women’s side from 30 countries.
The 10K qualifying race will be held in the Guadalquivir River that runs through the center of Seville, in the southwestern part of Spain. The race is in a closed 2.5K-loop course where the water temperature is expected to be approximately 24°-25°C (75°-77°F). The entire course in the river is between 3 – 8 meters deep with relatively little current and surface chop, unless the winds pick up.
The athletes will wear microchip transponders on both of their wrists throughout the race. A dive start will be used from a floating start pontoon. There will also be one feeding pontoon located in the center of the course where one coach will be permitted per swimmer. No boats will be allowed on the course except for boats with the race officials, media representatives and medical personnel.
The Who’s Who of open water swimming will be there…all of whom have their own Olympic dreams. If the results from the 2006 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Napoli, Italy are any indication, the 10K races at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships will be extremely exciting and close.
10K Men’s Final Results
GOLD: Thomas Lurz, Germany, 2 hours 10 minutes 39 seconds
SILVER: Valerio Cleri, Italy, 2 hours 10 minutes 40 seconds
BRONZE: Evgeny Drattsev, Russia, 2 hours 10 minutes 40 seconds
4th: Andrea Righi, Italy, 2 hours 10 minutes 42 seconds
5th: Marteen Van Der Weijden, Netherlands, 2 hours 10 minutes 43 seconds
6th: Chip Peterson, USA, 2 hours 10 minutes 44 seconds
7th: Evgeny Koshkarov, Russia, 2 hours 10 minutes 44 seconds
8th: Josh Santacaterina, Australia, 2 hours 10 minutes 45 seconds
9th: Christian Hein, Germany, 2 hours 10 minutes 47 seconds
10th: Stephane Gomez, France, 2 hours 10 minutes 48 seconds
11th: Igor Chervynskiy, Ukraine, 2 hours 10 minutes 49 seconds
12th: Alan Bircher, Great Britain, 2 hours 10 minutes 50 seconds
13th: Brendan Capell, Australia, 2 hours 10 minutes 53 seconds
14th: Shaun Dias, South Africa, 2 hours 11 minutes 0 seconds
15th: Mohamed El Zanaty, Egypt, 2 hours 11 minutes 0 seconds
10K Women’s Final Results
GOLD: Larisa Ilchenko, Russia, 2 hours 19 minutes 49 seconds
SILVER: Poliana Okimoto, Brazil, 2 hours 19 minutes 49 seconds
BRONZE: Ksenia Popova, Russia, 2 hours 19 minutes 49 seconds
4th: Angela Maurer, Germany, 2 hours 20 minutes 0 seconds
5th: Trudee Hutchinson, Australia, 2 hours 20 minutes 9 seconds
6th: Jana Pechanova, Czech, 2 hours 20 minutes 22 seconds
7th: Cassandra Patten, Great Britain, 2 hours 20 minutes 24 seconds
8th: Kate Brookes-Peterson, Australia, 2 hours 20 minutes 31 seconds
9th: Laura La Piana, Italy, 2 hours 20 minutes 32 seconds
10th: Erica Rose, USA, 2 hours 20 minutes 34 seconds
11th: Ana Marcela Da Cruz, Brazil, 2 hours 20 minutes 56 seconds
12th: Natalya Samorodina, Ukraine, 2 hours 20 minutes 59 seconds
13th: Isobel Newman, Great Britain, 2 hours 24 minutes 29 seconds
14th: Celeste Punet, Argentina, 2 hours 24 minutes 45 seconds
15th: Federica Vitale, Italy, 2 hours 24 minutes 49 seconds
Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association
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