Chad Ho is on a tear – at professional invitational races around the world, at FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup events and, in front of the largest audience ever, the 37th Halfway Toyota Midmar Mile at the KwaZulu-Natal Resort in South Africa this Sunday, but it was not without a serious challenge that he was the fastest person among 16,200 entrants in the 37th Halfway Toyota Midmar Mile.
The lead pack included Heerden Herman, Dannie Marias, defending champion Riaan Schoeman, former champion Shaun Dias, and a pair of Germans, Alexander Studzinski and Christian Reichert.
According to Neville Smith at SuperSwimmer, Chad blazed through the first two hot spots at the 400-meter and 800-meter marks. By the final hot spot at 1200 meters, Riaan overtook Chad, but up-and-coming Daniel Fogg of Great Britain and four others moved into pursuit as six men aimed themselves at the finish. It was anyone’s ball game and it would come down to whomever was able to finish fast through the shallow waters and ‘go vertical’ the fastest.
Like his great surge at the recent FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup in Brazil, Chad caught Daniel near the shallow water and both dolphined and went vertical simultaneously, but it was Chad who churned fastest on land as he bulled his way to the finish with a final time of 18:39 to Daniel’s 18:40, Riaan’s 18:42, Alexanders’ 18:43, Brown in 18:45, Shaun Dias in 18:51, Chad le Chlos in 18:57, Christian Reichert in 19:00, Tom Allen from Great Britain in 19:00 and Heerden Herman in 10th place in 19:02.
On the women’s side, Keri-Anne Payne showed why she is the reigning 10K world champion. Keri-Anne and her teammates from Great Britain, including Olympic bronze medalist Cassandra Patton, Charlotte Wolingscroft and Sophie Casson, followed Katy Whitfield through all three hot-spots. But with 250 meters left, Keri-Anne took control of the race to comfortably win her sixth title.
Keri-Anne finished in 19:24 ahead of Katy who was able to hang on to second in 19:27, Cassandra in third in 19:30, Charlotte in 19:34, Sophie in 19:34, Kathryn Meaklim in 19:40, Rene Warnes in 19:55, Nicole Brits in 20:05, Brittney Cameron in 20:57 and Megan Stephens in 21:33 to round out the top ten finishers.
The event attracted over 16,200 entries to break the Midmar Mile’s official Guinness Book of Records even of 2009 as the world’s largest open water swimming event.
Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source