American open water swimmer Alex Meyer has been on the verge of a big breakthrough internationally in open water’s premier race, the 10k, but has been up-and-down in his success there while continuing to excel in the longer 25k (a non-Olympic event).
He might have gotten his confidence-boosting win on Friday at Lac Magog, Canada, with a win at the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup’s 5th stop.
In a fingertip finish, Meyer beat out Germany’s Thomas Lurz, one of the true legends of open water swimming with 12 World Championships by 1:55:10.63 to 1:55:10.90. Brazil’s Allan do Carmo was 3rd in 1:55:12.94.
Lurz held a body-length lead headed into the final stretch, but lost awareness of where his competitor was – which is a huge flaw in the open water sport.
“In the last 400 metres, I made a mistake: I was a body-length in front and I didn’t see Alex [Meyer] coming on my right,” Lurz said. “”You need to have goals, otherwise you lose your motivation. My next big goal is the 2015 World Championships in Kazan. I’m going to keep going until Rio 2016.”
American Chip Peterson was 5th, continuing his comeback begun 7 months ago in fine fashion.
On the women’s side, It was Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha who won, with the top American finisher Emily Brunneman placing 6th.