Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Isabelle Härle once swam a 5 km swim in 52:54. She was flying in that race. She took it out hard and hung on to win a gold medal in the 5 km team pursuit for her native Germany at the 2013 FINA World Championships.

But she had the advantage of drafting off of teammates Thomas Lurz and Christian Reichert.

In the 5 km race at the 2014 European Championships, she was without her male teammates, but took out her swim equally hard and similarly hung on to win a gold medal, the first solo European championships of her career. ”I imagined that Thomas was swimming ahead of me, and this helped me a great deal.”

The final results:

1. Isabelle Härle (GER) 57:55.7

2. Sharon Van Rowendaal (NED) 58:29.9

3. Mireia Belmonte Garcia (ESP) 58:41.4

4. Eva Risztov (HUN) 58:48.7

5. Rachele Bruni (ITA) 58:56.3

6. Kalliopi Araouzou (GRE) 59:37.2

7. Mariia Novikova (RUS) 59:50.5

8. Erika Villaecija Garcia (ESP) 1:00:06.4

9. Patricia Wartenberg (GER) 1:00:08.4

10. Finnia Wurnram (GER) 1:00:19.9

11. Nikolett Szilagyi (HUN) 1:00:46.9

12. Isabella Sinisi (ITA) 1:00:48.9

13. Anastasiia Krapivina (RUS) 1:01:02.7

14. Elizaveta Gorshkova (RUS) 1:01:12.1

15. Julie Berthier (FRA) 1:01:13.8

16. Alice Dearing (GBR) 1:01:50.9

17. Giorgia Consiglio (ITA) 1:01:52.0

18. Jana Pechanova (CZE) 1:02:10.8

19. Lucinda Campbell (GBR) 1:03:12.9

20. Luisa Morales Gil (ESP) 1:03:26.6

21. Kseniya Skrypel (UKR) 1:03:30.3

22. Barbora Pickova (CZE) 1:05:33.1

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