Hector Pardoe Is Heading To The Tokyo Olympic Games

Steven Munatones 06/20/2021 open water swimming No Comment

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

An Olympic dream came true for many today at the final FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier in Parque Urbano de Albarquel in Setúbal Bay, Portugal. 15 swimmers qualified for the Tokyo Olympics including Hector Pardoe who raced against his British teammate Tobias Patrick Robinson to capture the overall victory and the sole spot available to British swimmers.

Pardoe said, “It was hard, very wavy from the start. But I just tried to conserve enough energy for the sprint finish because in a wetsuit I knew it was going to come all the way down to that last 190 meters. And I was hurting at the orange buoy’s so much, I just had the goal of the Olympics and I had so much lactic acid but I just kept pushing through and then touched and screamed. Tokyo is, definitely, in my head now. Go back to training, four more weeks and then yeah Tokyo.”

Due to the water temperature, the athletes were required to wear wetsuits. “It will be interesting to see the relative performance of the swimmers without a wetsuit – which will be the case in Tokyo in the very warm water of Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay – compared to their performances with a wetsuit in the colder water of Setúbal Bay,” said Steven Munatones. “It is also the first time in recent – or distant – memory that the women finished faster than the men in a 10 km course. The waves and currents today really made this race an open water challenge.”

The final FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier results:

Hector Thomas Cheal Pardoe, Great Britain (20) 2:02:07.60 [shown above]
Athanasios Kynigakis, Greece (22) 2:02:13.10
Tobias Patrick Robinson, Great Britain (24) 2:02:13.10
Matan Roditi, Israel (22) 2:02:15.90
Kai Graeme Edwards, Australia (22) 2:02:17.30
Taishin Minamide, Japan (25) 2:02:29.70
Tiago Campos, Portugal (22) 2:02:32.90
Kirill Abrosimov, Russia (29) 2:02:37.20
David Farinango, Ecuador (20) 2:02:47.90
Ous Mellouli, Tunisia (37) 2:02:55.60
Michael McGlynn, South Africa (21) 2:02:56.70
Daniel Delgadillo, Mexico (31) 2:02:56.80
Matej Kozubek, Czech Republic (25) 2:02:56.80
Elliot Sodemann, Sweden (23) 2:02:57.10
Nicholas Sloman, Australia (23) 2:03:03.60
Esteban Enderica Salgado, Ecuador (30) 2:03:03.90
Diogo Cardoso, Portugal (20) 2:03:05.10
Hau-Li Fan, Canada (23) 2:03:05.40
Evgenji Pop Acev, Macedonia (33) 2:03:06.00
Jan Hercog, Austria (23) 2:03:06.40
Diogo Villarinho, Brazil (27) 2:03:08.60
Logan Vanhuys, Belgium (24) 2:03:09.20
Takeshi Toyoda, Japan (25) 2:03:09.40
Joaquin Moreno, Argentina (23) 2:03:09.50
Phillip Seidler, Namibia (23) 2:03:11.20
William Yan Thorley, Hong Kong (18) 2:03:11.70
Johndry Segovia, Venezuela (33) 2:03:17.70
Malek Louissi, Tunisia (19) 2:04:03.80
Diego Vera, Venezuela (24) 2:04:40.80
Vit Ingeduld, Czech Republic (26) 2:04:48.70
Tomas Peciar, Slovenia (18) 2:04:52.20
Evegnii Drattcev, Russia (38) 2:05:25.20
Krzysztof Chmielewski, Poland (17) 2:05:25.50
Mathieu Mathy Ben Rahou, Morocco (25) 2:05:27.20
Henre Louw, South Africa (19) 2:05:28.40
Federico Salghetti-Drioli, Switzerland (20) 2:05:32.90
Tanakrit Kittiya, Thailand (24) 2:05:38.90
Franco Ivo Cassini, Argentina (27) 2:06:02.00
Marwan Elamrawy, Egypt (26) 2:06:49.50
Christian Schreiber, Switzerland (19) 2:06:57.70
Cheng-Chi Cho, Chinese Taipei (22) 2:07:01.30
Yuval Safra, Israel (27) 2:07:17.00
Matthias Glenesk, Sweden (27) 2:13:28.80
Allan do Carmo, Brazil (31) 2:14:29.50
Bogdan Petre, Romania (24) 2:15:13.70
Rodrigo Caballero, Bolivia (26) 2:15:40.00
Kai-Wen Tseng, Chinese Taipei (19) 2:16:22.30
Maximiliano Paccot, Uruguay (25) 2:20:43.00
Chin Ting Keith Sin, Hong Kong (26) 2:21:15.40
Felipe Lopez, Uruguay (18) 2:24:49.60
Araya Pumchitamorn, Thailand (24) 2:25:35.80

DNF – Eric Hedlin, Canada (28)
DNF – Elhamy Mahmoud, Egypt (22)
DNF – Dimitrios Markos, Greece (19)
DNF – Fernando Betanzos, Mexico (28)

Hau-Li Fan also realized his Olympic dream, finishing 17^th overall – see 15 qualifiers below. “It’s an amazing feeling. It was unexpected but I’ll take it,” he said as he joined his teammate Kate Sanderson. “The race itself was quite hard, there was a lot of people throughout the race even at the finish. It was also my first wetsuit race so I struggled a little bit but I feel my next race at the Olympics will be much better and I’ll be much more prepared.”

“Great job by coach Brad Dingey who coaches both Kate and Hau-Li,” said Canadian National Distance and Open Water Coach, Mark Perry. “It’s great getting two of them qualified for the Olympics. Hau-Li qualified for the continental spot which is a good result for him. It was a very difficult competition and he is now looking forward to spending a few weeks to put right some of the things that went wrong in that race. We are looking forward to going to do that together with him and Kate.”

Japanese swimmer Takeshi Toyoda took off at the start and was way ahead of the rest of the field for the first four laps, but he couldn’t hold on. The front pack passed him on the final lap and he ended up finishing 22^nd, behind his teammate Taishun Minamide who will represent Japan at the Tokyo Olympics.

Hector Thomas Cheal Pardoe, Great Britain
Athanasios Kynigakis, Greece
Matan Roditi, Israel
Kai Graeme Edwards, Australia
Taishin Minamide, Japan (25) 2:02:29.70
Tiago Campos, Portugal (22) 2:02:32.90
Kirill Abrosimov, Russia (29) 2:02:37.20
David Farinango, Ecuador (20) 2:02:47.90
Ous Mellouli, Tunisia (37) 2:02:55.60
Michael McGlynn, South Africa (21) 2:02:56.70
Daniel Delgadillo, Mexico (31) 2:02:56.80
Matej Kozubek, Czech Republic – European continental qualifier
Hau-Li Fan, Canada – Americas continental qualifier
Phillip Seidler, Namibia – Africa continental qualifier
William Yan Thorley, Hong Kong – Asia continental qualifier

The 25 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim finalists who will compete in Tokyo Bay on August 5th:

1. Florian Wellbrock (Germany)
2. Marc-Antoine Olivier (France)
3. Rob Muffels (Germany)
4. Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary)
5. Jordan Wilimovsky (USA)
6. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy)
7. Ferry Weertman (Netherlands)
8. Alberto Martinez (Spain)
9. Mario Sanzullo (Italy)
10. David Aubry (France)
11. Hector Thomas Cheal Pardoe (Great Britain)
12. Athanasios Kynigakis (Greece)
13. Matan Roditi (Israel)
14. Kai Graeme Edwards (Australia)
15. Taishin Minamide (Japan)
16. Tiago Campos (Portugal)
17. Kirill Abrosimov (Russia)
18. David Farinango (Ecuador)
19. Ous Mellouli (Tunisia)
20. Michael McGlynn (South Africa)
21. Daniel Delgadillo (Mexico)
22. Matej Kozubek (Czech Republic)
23. Hau-Li Fan (Canada)
24. Phillip Seidler (Namibia)
25. William Yan Thorley (Hong Kong)

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Steven Munatones

Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.

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