Today Eva Fabian topped off the the open water swimming at the 15th FINA Aquatic World Championships in Barcelona with a bronze medal in the 25K. Eva’s winning time of 5:07:20.4 was mere .7 behind the gold medalist Martina Grimaldi of Italy. The top six women, which included fellow American Christine Jennings were swimming an average pace of 1:13 + per 100 meters. Many pool swimmers are familiar with the classic “100 x 100’s” (often times a new year’s set), but imagine doing 250 x 100 long course on a 1:15. But wait, there’s more, imagine taking away the benefit of pushing off the wall and the one turn. So you can see that this is a huge race. All the open water distances demand a high degree of focus and fortitude but when you get up in the 25K plus range it’s truly a new level. OK, back to Eva, she was cool enough to get in touch following the race to share a little bit of the inside scoop.
After the most interesting race I’ve ever swum, I’m very proud to come out with a bronze! The 25k is always an adventure, but today was incredible. The men’s race caught the women’s race at the 10k, creating a giant pack, and throwing the whole race into confusion. The last 12.5k was incredibly fast: the overall time of 5 hours and 7 minutes was pretty amazing. I’m proud that I was able to represent my country to the best of my ability, and I am ready for team dinner tonight! GO USA!
We’re proud of you too Eva and we’re proud of the entire group open water swimmers who are showing us the thrill, excitement and determination of this facet of our sport.
Eva Fabian and Christine Jennings at the 2011 test event in London. (photo: Mike Lewis, Ola Vista Photography)
Way to go to Eva & Christine (and all you other OW adventurers out there)! This is something truly special. The mental fortitude and physical prowess necessary to execute something like this is often overlooked by the glory of the pool. Keep rockin!
That sucks that the men caught up with the women. It’s not like marathon running where you can spread out more easily and see exactly what’s going on, more easily find your competition, etc. Was the men’s race much faster than predicted, or did somebody mess up??
250 x 1:13 is incredible, btw. Not only no turns, but all of the potential contact, lack of a consistently straight line/streamlining, lower water temp, etc. Though on the other hand, I do wonder how much drafting factors into the time….