Thomas Lurz earns top spot in Men’s overall ranking: 2011 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup – Part 1
Five-time World Open Water Champion and German specialist, Thomas Lurz presented a series of nerve-wrecking performances at the 2011 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup.
The Marathon World Cup was conducted under the supervision of the international aquatics sport governing body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA).
The World Cup constituted of seven stops, where the first race of the competition was scheduled in Santos, Brazil, on April 17, 2011.
Lurz competed in five of the seven legs at the Marathon World Cup, where he captured three gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal, scoring a total of 114 points. His exceptional efforts throughout the Marathon series shattered hopes of his competitors
and the German veteran remained ahead of his rivals.
Lurz’s splendid efforts spread over his extensive Open Water career are a living proof of his extraordinary skills. He was the third best open water swimmer to finish the 10km swim at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and thus, occupied a bronze medal. His recent
accomplishments include a gold medal in the 5km swim, a silver medal in 10km and a bronze medal in the 5km team event at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships.
Moreover, the German has been successful in grabbing five gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal at World Championship editions from 2005 onwards. He also clinched five gold medals and two bronze medals at the World Open Water Championships
from 2004-2010. He owns four gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal of the European Championships.
The 31-year-old champion was very excited about his first race of the championship, where he was competing with his strongest competitors including Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece, Francisco Jose Hervas of Spain, Allan Do Carmo of Brazil and Brian Ryckeman
of Belgium.
Nevertheless, the German presented a stunning effort in the Open Water swim, devastating the hopes of his challengers with a phenomenal 2 hours, 06 minutes and 05.77 seconds effort. Lurz took a little time to get on his pace as he was a bit slower than his
rivals in the start.
His technique throughout the 10km swim was exceptional, as the champion remained slow and let his competitors run over him in the initial part of the race, but by the time they got tired, he accelerated his swim to override them in the second-half.
Lurz’s unmatchable endurance played a vital role in placing him over the victory stand for gold medal as he went full throttle to cover up Gianniotis’s lead. In the final kilometres of the race, Lurz engaged Gianniotis in a neck-to-neck race and he finally
got rid of his rival, crossing the finishing line with a lead of 2.23 seconds over Gianniotis.
The Greek specialist, who dominated majority of the race, failed to sustain his speed against Lurz and passed the finishing line with a timing of 2 hours, 06 minutes and 08.00 seconds for the silver medal.
Lurz was exhausted after swimming all the way through the 10km swim, but the German was delighted with his title claiming effort as this swim was just a head start for him for the remaining races.
Continued in Part 2.
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