Budapest: Watch The Men’s 10k Race Come Down To A Tenth

2017 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 14 – July 30
• Lake Balaton, Hungary
• Meet Central
• Full Schedule
• Men’s 10k Results

Watch any open water swimming race and you’ll be amazed at how close the finish can be after hours of grueling laps with packed crowds around buoys. Today in Lake Balaton was no exception as the 10k competitors roared to the timepad with the top 3 men separated by less than one second.

Slamming the touchpad first was 2016 Olympic champion Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands, who tactically clawed his way from 57th at the beginning of the race, to 8th, then ultimately to the lead against a pair of die-hard racers in America’s Jordan Wilimovsky and France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier.

Wilimovsky, too, steadily made his way to the lead bunch, starting out 49th at the 2.5k mark, then 36th after 4k and finally positioned 6th and charging with one lap to go. Weertman touched in 1:51.58.5 to take gold, immediately followed by Wilimovsky in 1:51.58.6, then the 5k gold medalist here in Budapest, Olivier, finished in 1:51.59.2 for bronze.

Below is the final portion of the race, where the demanding event was determined by one tenth of a second after nearly 2 hours of exertion.

Ongenaakbare @VeryFerryFast maakt het af in laatste meter. Nu ook wereldkampioen 10 km open water. pic.twitter.com/6U13uOigNR

— LuukBlijboom (@LBlijboom) July 18, 2017