American Haley Anderson Takes First Gold Medal of 2013 FINA World Championships

The race began in the wee hours of the American morning, but those who ventured enough to wake up for the women’s 5km open water swim on Saturday saw USC Trojan Haley Anderson take the first gold medal of this year’s World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.

Swimming in the relatively-calm Moll de la Fusta harbor, online reports (unrelated specifically to the race) put water temperatures in a very comfortable range – somewhere around 76-78 degrees Fahrenheit.

The calm didn’t last though, as this was maybe the best open water race of this level that we’ve seen since open water swimming really started to take hold a few years ago.

Anderson, who was disappointed to not make the American team in the Olympic 10km swim where she won a silver medal at the Olympics, made the best of the situation.

“I swam poorly in the 10km race at the US Trials in May (finishing 8th place – only the top 2 would represent the USA in Barcelona). It was the day of my graduation (from University of Southern California) and it was a rough day for me. Not all races always go well. I always work to be better to learn from my mistakes.”

Anderson led most of this race, but when Brazil’s incredibly experienced Poliana Okimoto took the lead, Anderson stayed calm and took advantage of the draft.

“I learned from the past to stay calm and confident,” Anderson said of her strategy. “After Poliana took the lead I was drafting behind her until the finish. I decided to stay on her feet until the last 300m and then sprint to the finish.”

And that is largely how this race played out.There was a furious battle for gold, where Anderson and Okimoto separated a bit from the pack, but the extension from Anderson gave her the victory in 56:34.2 to Okimoto’s 56:34.4.

Then, about 10 seconds back of those two, it was a war-of-attrition for the bronze medal. The second entered Brazilian, Ana Marcela Cunha, took out a huge pack to touch 3rd in 56:44.7, as third-through-11th places were only separated by four seconds over an hour-long race.

“It is very difficult to even make a double podium in a high level competition like this,” the silver medalist Okimoto said of her team’s accomplishment. “So everyone is to be congratulated. It proves that Brazil is doing a serious work in open water swimming because it’s a tough competition and everyone is very well prepared.:

Cunha is also very experience, and a full-investment by this pair in open water over the last few years has resulted in a lot of hardware early for the Brazilians.

This is a big step as the Brazilians head toward their home Olympics in 2016. They are guaranteed a berth in this race as the home country, but would love to qualify two. The only way to do that would be through both swimmers finishing in the top 10 at the Kazan World Championships in 2015, barring a qualifying change by FINA.

American Becca Mann was unable to repeat her magic from the US Nationals, where she emerged from a similarly-rugged pack in the 10km race to snag her spot on this team, but she finished a respectable 8th in 58:46.4.

Greece’s Kallopi Araouzou was 4th in 56:45.3 and Germany’s Isabelle Haerle was 5th in 56:46.2.

The top 10 finishers (full results can be seen here.)

1. Haley Anderson, USA, 56:34.2
2. Poliana Okimoto, Brazil, 56:34.4
3. Ana Marcela Cunha, Brazil, 56:44.7
4. Kallopi Araouzou, Greece, 56:45.3
5. Isabella Harle, Germany, 56:46.2
6. Cara Baker, New Zealand, 56:46.2
7. Martina Grimaldi, Italy, 56:46.2
8. Becca Mann, USA, 56:46.4
9. Aurelie Muller, France, 56:46.5
10. Rachel Bruni, Italy, 56:48.1

Haley Anderson interview, courtesy of FINATV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KuR9kcp1rQo