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

Riding The Wave Of Victory

Dr. Jim Miller took these fascinating photos of the 25K swimmers during the 2009 World Swimming Championships on Saturday.

Up and down the athlete competed for nearly six hours in the surf in another thrilling race at Ostia Beach in front of thousands of cheering Italian fans - only to end the race on an incoming wave.

Towards the final few frantic strokes, Angela Maurer (shown in the white swim cap with 2 black stripes) pulled slightly ahead and won by a half a stroke in 5:47:48 over Anna Uvarova of Russia (white cap with blue and red stripes) and Federica Vitale of Italy who were swimming right behind. But as Anna and Federica reached up to simultaneously touch the finish banner, a wave dropped Federica down and she could not reach the banner with her outstretched arm.

On her repeated attempts to touch the banner, Federica ended up with a bronze medal on her third attempt to touch the finish banner.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Russian Long-Distance Champions

At the Russian National Open Water Swimming Championships, Anna Uvarova and Natalia Pankina, two stalwarts on the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix circuit, placed 1-2 in the 16K race and will represent Russia at the upcoming 2009 World Swimming Championships in the 25K race.

On the men's side, Daniil Serebrennikov, another stalwart on the FINA pro circuits, and former world 10K champion Vladimir Dyatchin (shown above) had an incredible 16K race where they tied for first in an identical time of 3 hours 13 minutes 57.5 seconds.

Germans Top FINA Race in Rosario

Germans Britta Kamrau (shown below) and Alexander Studzinski (shown on left) won the second leg of the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix in Rosario, Argentina over the weekend.

Britta finished in 2:11:10 in the 15K Maraton Acuatico Internacional - Rosario and Alexander finished in 2:05:02.

Home country favorites also performed well with Cecilia Biagioli placing third in the women's race and Gabriel Villagoiz and Damian Blaum finishing second and third in the men's race.

The 30-year-old veteran Britta demonstrated her prowess in the triangle course in the Parana River, swimming six 1.8 laps after the initial 2K leg.

Alexander provided us with a first-hand synopsis of the race, "The race was slow in the beginning. I was always in front because nobody else wanted to lead. After 1.5 laps, there was a little gap between me and second place. I just kept swimming and the gap became bigger. I didn´t speed up or anything. After 2.5 laps, the gap was like 40 meters. I pushed for two [more] laps and it paid off. But nearly everybody [else] swam the entire [57K] race in Santa Fe - Coronda, but I got out after 3 hours due to stomach problems. So everybody was a bit tired and no one wanted to follow me."

Kind words, but Alexander appears to be on a comeback after placing 4th in the 2005 FINA World 25K Championships.

The next FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix race is in Viedma, Argentina. Additional photos below:



Women
1. Britta Kamrau-Corestein (Germany) 2:11:10
2. Anna Uvarova (Russia) 2:11:16
3. Cecilia Biagioli (Argentina) 2:13:07

Men
1. Alexander Studzinski (Germany) 2:05:02
2. Gabriel Villagoiz (Argentina) 2:06:54
3. Damian Blaum (Argentina) 2:06:56
3. Rodolfo Valenti (Italy) 2:06:56

Photo of Britta by Heiner Köpcke.

Copyright © 2009 by Open Water Source

Handing Over the Reins to the Next Generation

After a wonderful week of competition in Croatia, including new 5K time trials, the weather turned on the female 25K swimmers leading the LEN organizers to move the original 25K course in the Bay (see photo on left) to a more sheltered alternative 5K course in Dubrovacka Bay (see course below) on late Saturday evening.

But conditions were still rough.

Britta Kamrau-Corestein of Germany who finished strongly to capture silver in 5:39:00.2 said, "I wanted to give up after two laps because the water was so cold. When the leading group increased the pace at the last turn, I mentally said goodbye to the leaders and thought I missed it. I can’t believe that I did enough for winning silver. That’s a great conclusion of the European Championships for me."

Russia's Anna Uvarova who outsprinted Italy's Martina Grimaldi and the Netherlands' Edith van Dijk for bronze in 5:39:06.6 said, "The water was terribly cold and it was very windy. It was my tactics to swim four laps together with the leading group and then increase the pace. The tactics were right, because I’m not really a 25K swimmer, it’s simply too long for me."

van Dijk's customary position on the awards podium was taken by newcomer Margarita Dominguez of Spain who won in 5:38:35.3sec. "It was my first-ever 25K race. I prefer the circuit-type race course. When I saw the men’s 25K course, I really was a bit scared. At the last turn we were a group of three, Grimaldi, van Dijk and myself. I managed to accelerate about 800 meters from the finish line and kept my lead."

Grimaldi and van Dijk were timed together in 5:39:18.0. As a tribute to her outstanding performances, van Dijk, who was awarded the Best Swimmer of the Competition by LEN. van Dijk finished fourth for the third time in the European Open Water Swimming Championships. In the 5K race, the 10K race and today's 25K race, van Dijk finished fourth each time. A remarkable achievement for a remarkable athlete and mother.

Russians Go 1-2 in Stari Grad - Faros

The 16K FAROS Marathon (33rd Croatian International Long Distance Swimming Championship) was held on August 30th from Stari Grad to Faros.

Russians went 1-2 in the event. That is, Vladimir Dyatchin finished first in a new record of 3:03:57 and, surprisingly, Anna Uvarova, finished second overall with a new women's record of 3:14:42.

Dyatchin got disqualified and uncharacteristically finished out of top five at the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, but he clearly is back on track with a powerfully dominant win. Dyatchin (photo above from the 2007 Tiburon Mile) will lead a strong Russian team at the upcoming Tiburon Mile in San Francisco on October 5th.

Uvarova who won the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix in July 13 in Serbia, won convincingly over Angela Maurer who placed a close fourth in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.

The 2008 Faros Marathon video (in Croatian) can be seen here:

XXXIII. Faros Maraton 2008

Top 5 results are as follows:
Men
1. Vladimir Dyatchin, Russia, 3:03:57 (new record)
2. Rok Kerin, Slovenia, 3:18:46
3. Evgenij Pop Acev, Macedonia, 3:24:44
4. Josip Soldo, Croatia, 3:28:30
5. Daan Glorie, Netherlands, 3:31:26
Women:
1. Anna Uvarova, Russia, 3:14:42 (new record)
2. Angela Maurer, Germany, 3:23:45
3. Ekaterina Zhdanova, Russia, 3:25:53
4. Darija Pop, Montenegro, 3:30:38
5. Karla Sitic, Croatia, 3:31:31