Emily Brunemann took a major step forward over the weekend by winning the FINA Open Water 10km Marathon swim in Shantou, China. The field was made up of 14 swimmers, including 5-time World Championship medalist Angela Maurer of Germany. Brunemann’s final time was 2:04:52.41, as she touched the pad a solid two seconds ahead of series veterans Maurer and Nadine Reichert, also of Germany. Brunemann led the way most of the race, though the Germans were chasing her down headed into the final meters.
While comparisons between marathon swimming courses, much like marathon running courses, is never exact, that 2:04 is a pretty solid mark for Brunemann in pretty good conditions for racing.
The Germans have dominated the series this year, and currently hold the top three spots in the overall standings, but this is Brunemann’s first participation of the year. This is an incarnation of the comments made by the USA Swimming leadership at their recent convention in Jacksonville, where they made a commitment to match the dedication of the Europeans (Germany was one of the countries specifically named) to the development of the sport.
In an interview given early in the year, Brunemann indicated that she would be hitting more than just the last two stops of the trip (this one and next weekend’s race in Hong Kong), but for whatever reason, that didn’t pan out.
This will serve as a great springboard and confidence-builder for her headed into 2012, where in April she will have a chance to earn one of two American spots for the Olympic Qualifying meet. The top 10 finishers from that Olympic Qualifying meet will then earn a spot in the Olympics. Maurer already has qualified for the Olympics based on her 8th-place finish at the World Championships in this distance.
After the race, Brunemann commented via Twitter that the “China race was great, race was ran [sic] well and it was nice to win too!”. She also noted that she felt “surprisingly great” after the 10k.
Also significant is that Brunemann picked up some prize money for her victory, which should help take the stress off of post-graduate life for an open water swimmer that doesn’t have the same access to rewards as pool swimmers do. For her victory, she scored $2,500 from this race, and in the sporadically-attended series, moved into a tie for 6th place with Argentina’s Cecilia Biagoli. With one race left, and without many Europeans, North Americans, or South Americans seeming to have made the trip for the Asian swing, that puts her in position to win an additional $1,000 in series prize money.
With another win in Hong Kong, which is no small task given the level of competition, she could move as high as 4th overall which would score her $5,000 in series-standings prize money, in addition to that which she would earn specifically for the race. If she is able to finish in the top 5, that will earn her several exemptions in next year’s series, including free board and lodging.
It’s a wonder that more athletes don’t participate more frequently in this series, given that besides the racing opportunities, there is a lot of prize money available. Brunemann will be the only American woman this year to swim more than one race in the series (Heide George, Haley Anderson, and Christine Jennings each swam one of the three North American stops).
The men’s race was won by Germany’s Thomas Lurz in 1:54:22.95, which makes him the first swimmer to win two races in the series. He has a dominant lead on the men’s side.
Official temperature reports were not yet made available, but the official event invitation indicated that the Xinjin River has a typical water temperature of 20-25 degrees Celcius and an air temperature of 23-30 degrees Celcius, which are well within the safe bounds set by both FINA and USA Swimming. Shantou is used as China’s demonstration of a “clean city,” so the presumption is that there were few issues with a dirty course either.