Olympians Headline Midmar Mile 10K

Olympic 10K Marathon Swim athletes took part in the world's biggest open water swim, the Midmar Mile in South Africa including a full contingent of British stars headlined by Keri-Anne Payne and Cassandra Patten, and defending champion Chad Ho of South Africa and Hungarian Csaba Gercsak.

In the 10K Midmar Mile Long-Distance race, a prelude to the Halfway Telkom Midmar Mile, Christian Reichert of Germany won in 2:01:18, beating Belgium's Brian Ryckeman (shown above) by 18 seconds. Ryckeman was 7th in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, but could not catch the blazing Reichert under difficult conditions.

Nadine Pastor of Germany, who recently place third in the first leg of the 2009 FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup in Brazil, kept up with the leading men for the first 5K and comfortably won the women’s race comfortably.

Midmar Mile 10K Top 10 Results
1. Christiaan Reichert (Germany) 2:01:18.1
2. Brian Ryckeman (Belgium) 2:01:36.1
3. Tyrone Venter (South Africa) 2:04:49.2
4. Nadine Pastor (Germany) 2:05:35.1
5. Charlotte Woolenscroft (Great Britain) 2:07:11.6
6. Alice McCall (Great Britain) 2:16:28.7
7. Belinda Van der Merwe (Great Britain) 2:51:36.1
8. Nadia Bacchini (South Africa) 2:57:15.2
9. Ingrid Kruger (South Africa) 2:57:15.2
10. Devon Thomson (South Africa) 3:08:09.4

Copyright © 2009 by Open Water Source