Recap Of The Women's 25K World Championship

FINA provided a summary of the women's 25K races in Ostia Beach.

This is how FINA described the race held under wavy conditions:

Germany's Angela Maurer explained her victory, "My goal in Rome was a medal and I got gold. With the waves, it is important to swim in the lead. Although I like the heat and the waves, today there was a little too much."

Silver medalist Anna Uvarova of Russia explained her view of the course, "It was very difficult because of the sea. It was really wavy. I was very satisfied with her final sprint. In the last lap, I sped up. I swam very fast. When I realized I was third, I aimed at reaching the Italian girl (Federica Vitale) and I managed to overtake her."

Federica in turn explained her bronze-medal swim, "[The bronze medal] is the greatest thing I have done until now. This time I really wanted to make it. I gaveit everything I could in these six hours and over the last six months. I did my best, especially so I could win in my town."

FINA also gave some detailed race highlights:

After 1 hour and 50 minutes of swimming, Anna and three other favorites - Natalya Pankina of Russia, Kate Brookes-Peterson of Australia and Martina Grimaldi of Italy - shared the lead. After 3 hours and 30 minutes, as the competitors were finishing their sixth of ten laps, the situation remained unchanged except two swimmers had left the race: Zaira Cardenas of Mexico with serious jellyfish stings and Kate who was suffering from dehydration and exhaustion.

By the conclusion of their seventh lap, Natalya, who finished ninth, was leading, followed by Martina and Angela. These three set the pace for some time, but not without appearances at the front by 15-year-old Eva Fabian of the USA (shown on left after race) and Celia Barrot of France who finished fifth.

Federica started to make her move towards the lead and Margarita Dominguez of Spain was also regularly applying pressure. Margarita would end up taking the frustrating fourth place at the end.

With 1.5K to go, Margarita, Angela and Martina were battling it out for the medals. But unlike the men's 25K race, numerous other swimmers were right on their heels and they were facing a considerable challenge if they wanted to hang on for a medal. It was a very close, fast finish considering the distance they had swum. In the end , Angela's experience gave her the edge and her eighth world championship medal (2 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze).

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association