Men's Marathon 10km: Maarten van der Weijden surprises favorites

(BEIJING) -- Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands won the gold medal in a huge upset in the inaugural Men's Marathon 10km Swimming race at a rainy Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on Sunday.
The Dutch swimmer, who returned to competitive swimming after beating leukaemia which was diagnosed seven years ago, had not ranked among the pre-race favorites.

Lurz, with more success over the 5km distance but a world title in this distance in 2006 and one of the pre-race favorites, came home strongly to win the bronze medal in a time of 1:51:53.6.

In steady rain, the 25 swimmers hit the water with Davies quickly working his way to the front from Spyridon Gianniotis with Lurz right on their heels. With Davies, the 1500m specialist, at the front the field quickly became strung out.

Davies, like his compatriots Keri-Anne Payne and Cassandra Patten in the Women's Marathon 10km on Wednesday, led for much of the first three laps. At the beginning of the fourth and final lap the moves began to come. Lurz swam up to share the lead with Davies, until Gianniotis went to the front.

The pack then settled back down with Davies again taking the lead and increasing the tempo and his kicking. The pack split across the course with Van der Weijden, Davies and Lurz pulling away toward the middle of the course for the sprint to the line.

 
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