Today in Setúbal, Portugal the men’s Olympic 10K Open Water field was determined at the final of two qualifying events.
China’s Lijun Zu led the lead pack with a 1:52:18.2 to punch his ticket to Rio. Germany’s Christian Reichert was two seconds behind in 1:52:20.4 for a runner up finish today. Another two seconds behind was Ecuador’s Ivan Enderica Ochoa in 1:52:22.6.
Evgenii Drattcev of Russia secured his Olympic berth finishing just a tenth behind in 1:52:22.7. Fifth place was a tie between Ous Mellouli of Tunisia and Richard Nagy of Slovakia, both finishing in 1:52:24.8. Australian Jarrod Poort nearly made that a three way tie with his seventh place finish of 1:52:24.9.
While Andreas Waschburger was eighth to the finish in 1:52:25.4, he was five seconds behind his fellow countryman, who earned the only available qualification for the Germans.
Ninth place finisher Simon Huitenga encountered the same problem, finishing in 1:52:28.1, still inside the top 10, but just over three seconds behind the Australian who earned the Olympic slot for the nation.
Japan’s Yasunari Hirai was tenth in 1:52:31.1, good for a swim in Rio. South Africa’s Chad Ho (1:52:31.6) and Bulgaria’s Ventsislav Aydarski (1:52:32.3) will complete the field at the Olympic Games this August.
Photo Courtesy: FINA
Photo Courtesy: FINA
Photo Courtesy: FINA
Today’s qualifiers join the top 10 swimmers that qualified during the 2015 Kazan World Championships. In order to assure that there is representation from each continent the top-ranked swimmer from each continent who has not already qualified will automatically qualify for Rio.
The ten men who qualified in Kazan are Jack Burnell (Great Britain), Allan Do Carmo (Brazil), Spyridon Gianniotis (Greece), Marc-Antoine Olivier (France), Simone Ruffini (Italy), Sean Ryan (USA),Federico Vanelli (Italy), Ferry Weertman (Netherlands), Richard Weinberger (Canada), and Jordan Wilimovsky (USA).
Yesterday, Xin Xin, also of China, won the women’s event.
FINA’s marathon rules can be found here.