Thomas Lurz earns top spot in Men’s overall ranking: 2011 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup – Part 3
After the completion of the Cancun leg, open water swimmers gathered for the third contest of 2011 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup on June 18, at Setubal Bay, in Setubal, Portugal.
Just like the previous race, the Setubal leg was also full of surprises. Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece, who won the silver medal in Santos and took rest at the Cancun swim proved his dominance in front of the Open Water crowd by overwhelming the efforts
of Bulgarian swimmer, Petar Stoychev and German expert, Thomas Lurz.
After skipping the Cancun race, Gianniotis presented an eye-catching swim in Setubal. His flourishing efforts in the third stop of the FINA organised event provided him the gold medal and he secured second spot on the Men’s overall ranking.
The 31-year-old Gianniotis outshined his competitors with a phenomenal effort of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 29.5 seconds. With his impeccable swim, he maintained a comfortable lead over his competitors, Stoychev and Lurz and easily brought the gold medal home.
His immaculate effort in the Open Water discipline placed him nearly1.90 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Stoychev, who followed him on the podium for silver medal by posting a time of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 31.4 seconds.
Lurz once again failed to secure a gold finish and reached the medal rostrum for bronze medal. The German was almost 5.50 seconds slower than his preceding swimmer and passed through the finishing end with a timing of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 36.9 seconds.
Despite of his bronze finish, Lurz was still in a significant lead over his rivals, who were in a quest to lower him down on the overall scorings. He was in a lead of one bronze medal over Gianniotis, who elevated to second spot after occupying one gold
medal and one silver medal of the competition.
Lurz’s team-member, Christian Reichert also took part in all three legs of the competition, where he finished sixth in Santos, eighth in Cancun and seventh in Setubal, respectively. Though he failed to score a podium finish in any of these races, he kept
earning points with his consistent efforts in the Marathon World Cup.
Lurz preferred to take rest in the fourth and fifth stops of 10km World Cup, with the fourth meet being held at Lac St-Jean and fifth at Lac Megantic, in Canada.
Lac St-Jean was ruled by Andrea Volpini of Italy, who concluded his swim with a fabulous 2 hours, 05 minutes, 23.55 seconds effort. Argentina’s Damian Blaum was second, clocking a time of 2 hours, 05 minutes and 23.70 seconds, while Reichert earned third
position with timing of 2 hours, 05 minutes and 28.57 seconds.
The fifth spot of the race was dominated by Trent Grimsey of Australia, who obtained the gold medal in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 47 seconds. The fifth leg of the world cup was not so energetic, as only eleven players participated in it.
Nevertheless, the arena was curious to see the aggressive effort of Lurz, who took rest in these two stages and was preparing to compete in the sixth leg of the Arena World Cup in Shantou, China.
Continued in Part 4.
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