Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Conducted under the recently adopted new rules of FINA, a few old-timers came out on top on the men’s side at the first race on the FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit in Santos, Brazil.

German Olympian Thomas Lurz captured the opening race of the 2011 circuit with Greek pool and open water Olympian Spyridon Gianniotis coming in a close second and Spain’s Francisco José Huervas in third.

It was a very tight race from start to finish with no clear leader and several Olympians in the mix including Allan do Carmo of Brazil (4th) and Bryan Ryckeman (5th) of Belgium.

The men’s lead group split up at the last feeding station with half the leaders going to the right side and the other leaders going to the left side. Around the last turn buoy, the scramble was on and strategy gave way to a sprinting frenzy. “There were just a lot of guys fighting for positions in choppy currents,” said Mark Warkentin (8th) about the physicality. Allan agreed, “The race was physical and at the end, there was a strong current that went against us.”

As it is known locally, the International Aquatic Marathon of Holy/Trophy Renata Chamber Agondi/Unisanta was large – 91 swimmers (50 men and 41 women) from 21 countries and also served as a qualification race for the South American athletes for the upcoming Pan American Games 10K marathon swim in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“It was my first victory in Santos and I am very happy by a victory,” said Thomas of the race that saw athletes from Albania, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Slovenia, Spain, U.S.A., Ecuador, Greece, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Swiss, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela compete.

1. Thomas Lurz (GER), 2:06:05
2. Spyridon Gianniotis (GRC), 2:06:08
3. Francisco Jose Hervas (ESP), 2:06:13

Copyright © 2011 by World Open Water Swimming Association