Petar Stoychev, the English Channel record holder and number one ranked professional marathon swimmer over the last 7 years, won the 30K Ohrid Swimming Marathon in his final tune-up for the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.The lake race in Macedonia has a colorful open water swimming history dating back to 1924. The 2008 version was no less colorful and may result in rule changes.
Stoychev, finished in 6:14.51.4, winning a very close race over Brendan Capell of Australia (6:14:53.29), Stephane Gomez of France (6:14:53.5), Tomi Stefanovski of Macedonia (6:14:53.70) and Damian Blaum of Argentina (6:14:55.32).
Six hours of hard swimming with less than 4 seconds separating top 5 men. It is no wonder that emotions were still sky high moments after the race. Ohrid News caught on camera how the emotions flared at the finish line between Petar Stoychev and Stephane Gomez.
Stoychev will be swimming the 1500-meter freestyle and the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing. Gilles Rondy will be representing France.
On the women's side, Stefanie Biller of Germany won in 6 hours 15 minutes, comfortably ahead of Spain's sther Nunez Morera and Shelley Clark of Australia in 6 hours 35 minutes.
Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association
5 comments:
Hi Steve,
I saw your comments on Petar on the Channel Swimmers chat site.
Gilles Rondy also swam the Channel in 2005 in such bad conditions that the pilot required him to sign a disclaimer before he would take him into the Channel. So don't be misled by his 7:54.
I heard that Christof Wandratsch may be swimming for a country other than Germany. Do you have a complete listing od the 10k qualifiers?
Bryan Finlay.
I saw your comments on Petar on the Channel Swimmers chat site.
Gilles Rondy also swam the Channel in 2005 in such bad conditions that the pilot required him to sign a disclaimer before he would take him into the Channel. So don't be misled by his 7:54.
I heard that Christof Wandratsch may be swimming for a country other than Germany. Do you have a complete listing od the 10k qualifiers?
I saw your comments on Petar on the Channel Swimmers chat site.
Gilles Rondy also swam the Channel in 2005 in such bad conditions that the pilot required him to sign a disclaimer before he would take him into the Channel. So don't be misled by his 7:54.
I heard that Christof Wandratsch may be swimming for a country other than Germany. Do you have a complete listing od the 10k qualifiers?
On the July 15th blog on this website, there is the final list of Olympic 10K Marathon Swim participants. This includes Gilles Rondy who qualified in Seville at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships. Here is the list for your reference:
1. Damian Blaum, Argentina
2. Ky Hurst, Australia
3. Brian Ryckeman, Belgium
4. Allan Do Carmo, Brazil
5. Petar Stoychev, Bulgaria
6. Tong Xin, China
7. Rostislav Vitek, Czech Republic
8. Mohamed El Zanaty Metwaly Mez, Egypt
9. Jose Francisco Hervas, Spain
10. Gilles Rondy, France
11. David Davies, Great Britain
12. Thomas Lurz, Germany
13. Gianniotis Spyridon, Greece
14. Csaba Gercsak, Hungary
15. Valerio Cleri, Italy
16. Luis Escobar, Mexico
17. Maarten van der Weijden, Netherlands
18. Arseniy Lavrentyev, Portugal
19. Chad Ho, South Africa
20. Vladimir Dyatchin, Russia
21. Evgeny Drattsev, Russia
22. Saleh Mohammad, Syria
23. Igor Chervynskiy,Ukraine
24. Mark Warkentin, USA
25. Erwin Maldonado, Venezuela
The female Olympic 10K Marathon Swim finalists are also listed in the July 15th blog on this website and include:
1. Antonella Bogarin, Argentina
2. Melissa Gorman, Australia
3. Poliana Okimoto, Brazil
4. Ana Marcela Cunha, Brazil
5. Kristel Kobrich, Chile
6. Yanqiao Fang, China
7. Jana Pechanova, Czech Republic
8. Yurema Requena, Spain
9. Aurelie Muller, France
10. Cassandra Patten, Great Britain
11. Keri-Anne Payne, Great Britain
12. Angela Maurer, Germany
13. Marianna Lymperia, Greece
14. Martina Grimaldi, Italy
15. Imelda Martinez, Mexico
16. Edith van Dijk, Netherlands
17. Daniela Inacio, Portugal
18. Natalie du Toit, South Africa
19. Larisa Ilchenko, Russia
20. Teja Zupan, Slovania
21. Swann Oberson, Switzerland
22. Eva Berglund, Sweden
23. Nataliya Samorodina, Ukraine
24. Chloe Sutton,USA
25. Andreina Pinto, Venezuela
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