Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

500 meters to go in the race and there was no time to be lost.

2012 Olympian Andrew Gemmell had lost his transponder and the officials asked him if he wanted another transponder.

No way, not in the heat of the battle and everyone sprinting all out.

So he finished the race, winning … and touching the finish pad with his hand with the remaining transponder.

But he was ruled ineligible and was disqualified for not finishing with two transponders. So he did what every good lobbyist did. He worked the phones. As his competitors were being participating in the awards ceremony, Gemmell was filing a protest. And his protest was upheld under USA Swimming rules that did not specifically state that a swimmer must finish with two transponders.

Gemmell won his third national 10 km title (following 2012 and 2014).

So the 2016 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships 10 km men’s results are as follows:

1 Andrew Gemmell (USA) 1:53:53.79
2 Ferry Weertman (Netherland) 1:53:55.11
3 Oussama Mellouli (Tunisia) 1:53:55.56
4 Alex Meyer (USA) 1:53:57.40
5 Marc-Antoine Olivier (France) 1:53:58.93
6 Jarrod Poort (Australia) 1:54:05.33
7 Brendan Casey (USA) 1:54:07.02
8 Richard Weinberger (Canada) 1:54:07.24
9 Sean Ryan (USA) 1:54:12.25
10 Yasunari Hirai (Japan) 1:54:19.73
11 Allan Do Carmo (Brazil) 1:54:20.63
12 David Heron (USA) 1:54:20.87
13 Chip Peterson (USA) 1:54:22.84
14 Daniel O’Connor (USA) 1:54:58.87
15 Taylor Abbott (USA) 1:55:14.27
16 Cameron Stitt (USA) 1:56:03.4
17 Rafael Gil (Portugal) 1:56:09.92
18 Sam Rice (USA) 1:56:13.05
19 Logan Redondo (USA) 1:56:24.69
20 Arthur Frayler (USA) 1:56:36.50
21 Simon Lamar (USA) 1:56:48.43
22 Riley Molina (USA) 1:57:05.84
23 Blake Manganiello (USA) 1:57:16.83
24 Carter Grimes (USA) 1:58:30.53
25 Michael Brinegar (USA) 1:58:50.40
26 Aaron Apel (USA) 1:59:02.81
27 TC Smith (USA) 1:59:19.14
28 Anis Cheniti (France) 1:59:19.62
29 Robbie Dickson (USA) 1:59:38.85
30 Michael Szuba (Poland) 2:00:23.04
31 Jacob Ores (USA) 2:00:37.71
32 Lozano Gutierrez (Peru) 2:01:44.72
33 Jerad Kaskawal (USA) 2:01:54.32
34 Nicholas McDowell (USA) 2:02:43.83
35 Matthew Lowe (USA) 2:04:56.27
36 Steve Sholdra (USA) 2:05:50.63
37 Michael Craddock (USA) 2:05:54.49
38 Joey Pedraza (USA) 2:05:58.63
39 Dallin Johnson (USA) 2:06:56.70
DQ Kane Radford (New Zealand) due to missing a turn buoy
DNF Marcel Schouten (Netherlands) due to dislocated shoulder

Why was Gemmell initially disqualified? Explanation on FINA rule OWS 7.2.2 is here.



Aerial images and highlights produced by Chris and Nate Lundie of Take It Live Productions.

Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association