Ous Mellouli,Tunisia, showed his success in London was no fluke as he took the 5K open water world championship title today. Mellouli is back in Barcelona 10 years after his debut here in 2003.
The men’s race saw another pool turned open water swimmer, Canada’s Eric Hedlin, on the podium – he was second. Open water legend, Germany’s Thomas Lurz take the bronze.
It’s interesting to see the how strong the ‘former’ pool swimmers are in this race. Hedlin, much like Mellouli in 2012, is pretty green to the open water swimming scene. Hedlin posted a great time at the 2013 Canadian World Trials, but was a disappointing third. But that didn’t hold him back, he went on Cancun World Cup (which served as the Canadian open water trials) and make the world team). Hedlin’s also coming off success in Kazan where he took the bronze in the 800 meter freestyle at the World University Games.
But it’s nowhere near time to cede the the open water to pool speedsters, the legend, the great and the determined Thomas Lurz brought home the bronze for Germany.
It’s a big day for USC’s Trojan Swim Club as Haley Anderson won the women’s race – A great reflection on Coach Dave Salo and Coach Catherine Voght’s program in Los Angeles.
You can find all the men’s results here
Here’s Mellouli’s post race interview:
On yutube , Fina has posted very short intervieuws from the winners but nothing about the races or the diving events …….pretty ridiculous !
Why can’t I find any video online showing the open water or diving??????? This is ridiculous!
Hey Lane Four,
We’re not allowed to have ‘bootlegged feeds’ linked on our site, or we risk losing our credentials to all future FINA or USA Swimming events, but if you’re interested, we’re partnering with Universal Sports to get a lot of video highlights. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we have. See here:
http://swimswam.com/day-1-highlights-from-2013-fina-world-aquatics-championships/
No news about diving?
Wu Minxia won gold in synchro, in the same pool where Fu Minxia won her first olympics gold as a 13 yo.
Millouli inspired all swimmers specially from arabian countries.
Big congratulations to Eric Hedlin! Great kickstart to Barcelona for Canada!
Mellouli is on top form when needed.. pretty impossible for the 1500 podium not to be Yang Cochrane and Mellouli like last year…