Marcin Szarpak Shatters Ice Kilometer World Record at IISA World Championship
Marcin Szarpak lost his 500m world record on the first day of the IISA 5th World Championship in Samoëns, France, but he more than made up for his bronze-medal 500m freestyle with an absolutely brilliant Ice Kilometer.
The 21-year-old ice swimming distance specialist completely rewrote the 1000m freestyle with a 11:31.53 time, significantly faster than his 11:48.10 world record that he set at the IISA 4th World Championship in his native Poland. To capture the gold medal, Szarpak had to swim fast because Olympian Andreas Waschburger of Germany (11:38.79) and 2-time FINA 25 km world champion Axel Reymond of France (11:49.40) pushed him throughout the race to a packed venue.
IISA Board Member Petar Stoychev, a 4-time Olympian and former two-time King of the Ice, accurately predicted before the event what would happen. He said, “We expect to see many world records shattered in this event. We have many new fast swimmers. The 1000m freestyle final will be at Olympic level.”
Truer words were never spoken in the Ice.
1000m Ice Kilometer Male Results (Top 10):
- Marcin Szarpak (Poland) 11:31.53
- Andreas Waschburger (Germany) 11:38.79
- Axel Reymond (France) 11:49.40
- Bartłomiej Kubkowski (Poland) 11:54.01
- Reino von Wielligh (South Africa) 12:03.46
- Radostin Krastev (Bulgaria) 12:10.69
- Phillip Duma (Great Britain) 13:08.94
- Colin Bushweller (USA) 13:18.38
- Fergil Hesterman (Netherlands) 13:32.73
- Dominic Mudge (Ireland) 14:01.94
- Previous world record was held by Marcin Szarpak (21, Poland) in 11:48.10 set at IISA 4th World Championship
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