Angela Maurer earns top place in Women’s overall ranking: 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup – Part 3
With two straight defeats in the initial races of the 2011 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup, Angela Maurer was in a hefty need of delivering a gold medal to her country.
Her efforts in the first two races were not worthy enough to win her a podium finish whereas the German seemed determined to meet the expectations of her fans in the third leg of Marathon series at Setubal Bay, in Setubal, Portugal.
The Setubal Marathon was scheduled 17 days after the Cancun swim and the German was preparing hard to excel in the competition. Finally, the day of competition came and 22 open water athletes gathered at the place of event to prove their mettle for the victory stand.
On the start of event, Maurer went full throttle, as she wanted to make no mistake this time. She faced tough competition from her team-member, Isabell Donath, Greece’s Kalliopi Araouzou and Karla Sitic of Croatia.
After a while, her opponents turned weak and started losing their pace. Maurer’s flawless stroke coupled with her gruelling strategy shattered hopes of her competitors in the first half of the swim. While heading towards the finishing end, she continued her brilliant efforts and kept her challengers at a prominent distance.
The 36-year-old Maurer was joined in by Donath in the second half, but with her elevated swim, she managed a lead of half-body length from Donath. Her challenger struggled hard to pass Maurer in the 10km event, but the German devastated her efforts and went on a rampage to make her way to the top of podium.
With her persistent efforts, the German expert stunned the open water crowd and picked up her first medal of the championship. She captured the gold medal of 10km swim in a time of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 41.9 seconds.
She was trailed by Donath, who remained nearly 1.3 seconds slower and reached the finishing end with a timing of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 43.2 seconds. This was Donath’s second medal of the series as she won a bronze medal for her scintillating efforts in Cancun. Nevertheless, the silver medallist remained 8.1 seconds ahead of her following swimmer, Araouzou, who completed the podium, by winning a bronze medal in a time of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 51.3 seconds.
Fourth position of the race was achieved by Croatia’s Sitic, who stayed only 1.2 seconds slower than the bronze medallist and crossed the finishing line with a timing of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 52.1 seconds.
Maurer’s team-member, Nadine Reichert once again failed to outshine her competitors in the 10km event and ended ninth by clocking a time of 1 hour, 56 minutes and 30.3 seconds.
After the completion of event, winners were honoured with medals and cash prizes while the spectators appreciated immense efforts of all open water swimmers in the distant freestyle event. Maurer’s struggle in the third leg made her followers happy and she gained confidence from her victory.
The next stop of the series was scheduled on July 24 at Lac St-Jean, in Canada. After competing in the first three open water races, Maurer felt exhausted and thus she did not take part in the fourth race of World Cup series.
Continued in Part 4.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: