South African Chad Ho took the men’s 5km event in thrilling fashion. Ho reached the halfway mark in the 16th place position, over ten seconds behind the leader Caleb Hughes of Great Britain.
Ho worked his way to the front of the pack and nudged his way past German Rob Muffels. The two finished with an identical time of 55:17.6 though Ho had a slight edge at the finish with the placing being determined by the event referee.
Ho just missed a podium finish in 2013 placing fourth, finishing a second and a half behind German Thomas Lurz.
Muffels finished 11th in 2013 and earned the silver at last year’s European Championships.
Italian Matteo Furlan collected the bronze in a time of 55:20.0.
Evgenii Drattcev of Russian finished fourth in a time of 55:20.4 followed by German Florian Wellbrock (55:20.6), American David Heron (55:20.7), Caleb Hughes of Great Britain (55:21.9), Mario Sanzullo (55:22.7) and Brazilian Victor Colonese (55:24.4).
Does anyone know if Thomas Lurz at this meet? In 2013 I believe he won a medal in all four open water events he entered which was an amazing feat.
No, he retired from swimming last year 🙁