Marc-Antoine Olivier Puts Himself Into Position For Tokyo

Courtesy of FINA, Yeosu EXPO Ocean Park, Gwangju, South Korea.

Marc-Antoine Olivier did not win the 2019 FINA World Championships 10 km marathon swim in Gwangju, South Korea, but he knows what he has to do at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to stand on top of the Olympic podium.

But his silver medal performance is a great indicator of this gold medal potential  at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games 10 km race – which will be won by the slimmest of margins.

Olivier lost the gold medal to Florian Wellbrock of Germany by only 0.2 seconds after a furious two-man sprint to the finish after an aggressive race where 7 yellow cards were issued by Chief FINA Referee Bill Ford.

Like the Germans and Italians, Olivier led the French team to also qualified two athletes, including his teammate David Aubry.

Olivier who medaled at the 2016 Rio Olympics 10 km race said, “I am really happy with today’s results, although I am a little disgusted because I get blocked at the finish. It was really a very difficult race.

It has been swimming all along, we have rarely had races like this. There is the Italian who put a very hard rhythm from the beginning. I tried to put my tactics in place, but it was really very difficult.

The qualifying year for the Olympics, people fight for a spot. It is only part postponed for next year, today there was some good competition, but it is not yet finished. I am happy that David Aubry from France also qualified as I train with him.

The last two days it was very hot and I thought a little bit about the conditions and a lot about the many strong swimmers in today’s race. I guess it was an advantage to know the German swimmers who I have raced in many European events and also last year at the European Games. I want to win a gold medal at the Olympics, but today was not about revenge. If you want to beat Ferry (Weertman, the defending Olympic champion), you will have to work very hard. Ferry is a world champion and Olympic gold medallist and everyone knows he is an outstanding athlete with a great finish. Today we had a tactic to keep the speed of the race very high and perhaps that surprised Ferry, but he is going to Tokyo just like us.”

Watch the remaining races at the FINA World Championships live here.

Men’s 10 km Olympic Qualification Race Results:

1. Florian Wellbrock (Germany) 1:47:55.90
2. Marc-Antoine Olivier (France) 1:47:56.10
3. Rob Muffels (Germany) 1:47:57.40
4. Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary) 1:47:59.50
5. Jordan Wilimovsky (USA) 1:48:01.00
6. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) 1:48:01.00
7. Ferry Weertman (Netherlands) 1:48:01.90
8. Alberto Martinez (Spain) 1:48:02.20
9. Mario Sanzullo (Italy) 1:48:04.70
10. David Aubry (France) 1:48:05.10
11. Esteban Enderica Salgado (Ecuador) 1:48:07.30
12. Jack Burnell (Great Britain) 1:48:09.90
13. Athanasios Charalampos Kynigakis (Greece) 1:48:15.40
14. Kai Graeme Edwards (Australia) 1:48:16.20
15. Logan Vanhuys (Belgium) 1:48:17.50
16. Matej Kozubek (Czech Republic) 1:48:19.10
17. Han-Li Fan (Canada) 1:48:21.10
18. Tobias Patrick Robinson (Great Britain) 1:48:23.50
19. Kirill Abrosimov (Russia) 1:48:55.90
20. Matan Roditi (Israel) 1:48:59.60
21. Nicholas Sloman (Australia) 1:49:22.70
22. Evgenii Drattcev (Russia) 1:49:37.40
23. Chad Ho (South Africa) 1:49:37.90
24. Jon Thomas McKay (Canada) 1:49:43.70
25. David Heron (USA) 1:49:57.60
26. Krzysztof Pielowski (Poland) 1:50:02.80
27. Daniel Szekelyi (Hungary) 1:50:11.30
28. Guillem Pujol (Spain) 1:50:11.60
29. Jiabao An (China) 1:50:14.00
30. Danie Marais (South Africa) 1:50:14.20
31. David Castro (Ecuador) 1:50:14.40
32. Phillip Seidler (Nambia) 1:50:14.40
33. Allan do Carmo (Brazil) 1:50:14.70
34. Victor Johansson (Sweden) 1:50:14.80
35. Victor Colonese (Brazil) 1:50:15.20
36. Diego Vera (Venezuela) 1:50:15.60
37. Elliot Sodemann (Sweden) 1:50:16.00
38. Ous Mellouli (Tunisia) 1:50:21.00
39. Takeshi Toyoda (Japan) 1:50:22.00
40. Santiago Arteta (Argentina) 1:50:24.10
41. Vit Ingeduld (Czech Republic) 1:50:24.90
42. Rafael Gil (Portugal) 1:50:27.30
43. Yuval Safray (Israel) 1:50:34.20
44. David Brandl (Austria) 1:51:26.30
45. Taiki Nonaka (Japan) 1:51:35.30
46. Joaquin Moreno (Argentina) 1:51:45.70
47. Aflah Fadlan Prawira (Indonesia) 1:52:33.80
48. Tamas Farkas (Serbia) 1:52:36.70
49. Tiago Campost (Portugal) 1:52:39.30
50. Arturo Perez Vertti Ferrer (Mexico) 1:52:42.60
51. Evgenij Pop Acev (Macedonia) 1:52:43.00
52. Igor Chervynskiy (Ukraine) 1:52:45.20
53. Seokhyun Park (Korea) 1:52:47.60
54. Junbohang Zhao (China) 1:52:52.70
55. Wilder Carreno (Venezuela) 1:52:53.50
56. Marwan Elamrawy (Egypt) 1:54:40.80
57. Fernando Betanzos (Mexico) 1:56:07.90
58. Mathieu Mathy Ben Rahou (Morocco) 1:56:07.90
59. Jaehun Park (Korea) 1:56:41.40
60. Lev Cherepanov (Kazakhstan) 1:58:04.40
61. William Yan Thorley (Hong Kong) 1:59:36.80
62. Rodrigo Caballero (Bolivia) 1:59:41.50 64.
63. Chin Ting Keith Sin (Hong Kong) 2:00:21.90
64. Tomas Peciart (Slovakia) 2:00:24.20
65. Maximiliano Paccot (Uruguay) 2:00:24.50
66. Damien Payet (Seychelles) 2:00:27.60
67. Tanakrit Kittiyat (Thailand) 2:00:37.10
68. Sushrut Suryakant Kapse (India) 2:03:25.90
69. Santiago Reyes (Guatemala) 2:08:27.50
70. Zedheir Torrez (Bolivia) 2:08:27.70
71. Siwat Matangkapong (Thailand) 2:09:32.80
72. Rinel Pius (Estonia) 2:09:56.00
73. Cristofer Lanuza (Costa Rica) 2:10:16.80
74. Alain Vidot (Seychelles) OLT

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