DQ’d No More: Gemmell Named 2016 10K Open Water National Champ

Though he was originally disqualified, Andrew Gemmell was officially named the 2016 U.S. Open Water National Champ in the 10K this afternoon.

You can view the full results here.

We covered the race earlier today, and you can view that recap here. Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands appeared to be the event winner after a tweet from USA Swimming suggested Gemmell, who finished the race first, was disqualified for a lost time chip.

But USA Swimming released the full results this afternoon, reinstating Gemmell to the top of the list.

We reached out to USA Swimming for explanation, and the federation said Gemmell’s DQ had been overturned.

That bumps Weertman to second and 2012 Olympic champ Ous Mellouli to third place overall. Gemmell’s winning time was 1:53:53.791, or about 1.4 seconds faster than Weertman.

Alex Meyer moves down to 4th overall and becomes the second American finisher in a field dominated by foreign athletes. France’s Marc Antoine Olivier was 5th overall.

Though a national title was at stake, the race didn’t have any Olympic ramifications for the Americans, with last year’s Open Water Nationals essentially deciding the nation’s Olympic hopefuls. The 2015 Open Water Nationals served as the qualifier for the 2015 World Championships, with the World Championships serving as the official qualifier for this summer’s Olympic Games.

The United States will be represented by Jordan Wilimovsky and Sean Ryan. Wilimovsky did not compete at this year’s Open Water Nationals, and Ryan took 9th overall.

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masters swimmer
7 years ago

What a relief! If the DQ had held up, it basically would have made officials and judges at the race utterly meaningless. I’m glad to see that a sensible decision has been made in this situation.

Shawn Meyer
7 years ago

How could they ever DQ a swimmer for losing a timing chip? Our US swimmer was denied the opportunity to stand on the podium with the other top finishers – too bad. Congrats, Andrew – and good job of finding that perfect line there at the end and staying out of the fray!

Displaced Wolverine
7 years ago

The Steve Harvey incident of swimming lol

Jiggs
7 years ago

Great news for Gemmell!!
If I were a pro open water swimmer, I’d go ahead and get the time chip implanted.
One less thing to worry about while crushing the open seas for two hours.

Lisi Krall
7 years ago

So glad that this got overturned. Great effort by our top Americans! Has Sean Ryan ever won a National Championship, though?

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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