Olympic silver medallist Keri-anne Payne finished 15th in a gruelling 10km marathon swim at the Kazan 2015 World Championships.
The Brit was part of the leading pack throughout the opening three 2.5km laps of the race but slipped away from the front as the lead thinned out in the final loop.
Payne, who won World Championship gold in 2009 and 2011, ultimately came home in 1:58:53.6 with British teammate Danielle Huskisson 35th in 2:00:57.3 as France’s Aurelie Muller (1:58:04.3), the Netherlands’ European champion Sharon Van Rouwendaal (1:58:06.7) and Brazil’s defending silver medallist Ana Marcela Cunha (1:58:26.5) took the podium spots.
While both Brits missed out on the chance to put themselves in contention for selection a Rio 2016 Olympic spot through a top 10 finish, they will be a second qualifying event in Portugal next June. And having secured two bronze medals on the 10km World Cup tour this season, Payne insists she can take encouragement from her performances since returning to competition 12 months ago.
“To finish 15th in the world in such a great field after only a year back in the water is an achievement in itself,” said Payne. “This is my tenth 10km this year so I thought I’d done enough racing but I felt like I was just struggling to keep up with the pace on the last lap.”
“I tried to keep my head down but every time I managed to do a good thing, somebody pulled me back and towards the end, there were only so many times I could do that. Of all the races I’ve done this year, this is only the second where I’ve finished outside of the top 10. Obviously I would have loved to have qualified for the Olympics a year out because it would have meant training would have been a little easier to focus on. But there’s still another chance to go and qualify. It’s not the way we wanted to do it but that’s just how it goes.”
Swimming news courtesy of British Swimming.