Under beautiful conditions – blue skies, clear water, light, cooling breeze in the peaceful Aegean Sea, Andrew Smilley of the Caymen Islands led the field of 35 athletes from 19 countries at the World Summer Games 1.5K open water swim from nearly start to finish.
After Wesley Klumper (17) of the Netherlands jumped out to a quick lead, Andrew and a pair of Koreans – Dong Han Kim and Jin Yong An – caught up and started to blaze a fast pace that they never relinquished.
Andrew gradually used his navigational IQ developed in the Cayman Islands to comfortably win the first division in 22:00.77. He never swam off-course and took the straight-line tangents from buoy to buoy in the two-loop rectangular course. Don Hang (23:04.78) and Jin Yong (23:26.69) were second and third respectively.
Cornelia Fowler of South Africa, her own skills honed at the Midmar Mile in her home country, similarly took it out and held her pace to win comfortably in 27:22.64. Elisabeth Mansoor of the Netherlands was the second-fastest women in 28:31.56 with Nadja Tonnesen of Denmark just behind in 28:35.62.
What was so amazing and beautiful to see is the tears of joy and appreciation that were shed at the end of the race. These athletes were so filled with gratitude of the opportunity to showcase their talents to the world that some of them broke down at the finish. Through their welled-up eyes, they waved and smiled broadly at the appreciative crowd who openly shared their joyful emotions at the celebration of open water swimming excellence and international camaraderie.
It was certainly a day to rehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmember. Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver who was onshore during the race was similarly touched, “Those athletes were great. What a wonderful competition. I was very impressed with them.”
The final times of the athletes were as follows:
Andrew Smilley (Cayman Islands) 22:00.77
Dong Han Kim (Korea) 23:04.78
Jin Yong An (Korea) 23:26.69
Joshua Timbs (Australia) 23:47.80
Eduardo Rodriguez (Guatemala) 26:25.64
Wesley Klumper (Netherlands) 26:31.86
Matthias Attard (Malta) 27:15.33
Mattetyahu Oren (Israel) 27:20.80
Cornelia Fowler (South Africa) 27:22.64
Ricardo Aponte (Puerto Rico) 27:38.44
Guy Wartikowsky (Israel) 28:05.31
Matthijs van Doorn (Netherlands) 28:27.48
Elisabeth Mansoor (Netherlands) 28:35.62
Nadja Tonnesen (Denmark) 28:31.56
Javier Mejia (Honduras) 28:38.30
Dylan Coop (Australia) 28:52.24
Eric Marchetti (Italy) 29:37.43
Heriberto Torres (Puerto Rico) 29:43.69
Suk Il Hwang (South Korea) 20:11.03
Efrain Gomez (Puerto Rico) 30:47.12
Wenda Schippers (Netherlands) 30:50.60
Alex Vaca (Ecuador) 31:27.21
Gregory Black (Australia) 31:28.32
Adriana Newton (Puerto Rico) 32:58.48
Mr. Mitchel Lopez (Curacao) 33:40.30
Samuel Silver (USA) 34:01.99
Flor Mendez (El Salvador) 34:25.23
Aisling Beacom (Ireland) 35:29.17
Alexandros Panagiotou (Greece) 39:00.85
Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece) 38:19.65
Opal Alon (Israel) 38:29.29
Ela Zohar (Israel) 38:41.77
Wensley Gysbertha (Curacao) 39:14.65
Michalis Kokkoris (Greece) 39:48.16
Zisis Dimoshakis (Greece) DNF
Note: the women started 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind the men. The times listed above for the women include this 2 minute 20 second start delay.
Photos courtesy of Bruckner Chase here.
Additional photos from the Dutch team here.
Video courtesy of the Dutch national team.
Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source