Petar Stoychev Wins Ice Kilometer At World Championship
Courtesy of WOWSA, Murmansk, Russia.
“I have covered Petar Stoychev for nearly 20 years and this was his most dominating performance in my opinion,” observed Steven Munatones.
He has done many incredible swims in his life – from setting the English Channel world record to winning the Traversée Internationale du lac St-Jean 11 consecutive times. He is master of all from winning the 25 km FINA World Championships in 32°C+ water in Shanghai to absolutely dominating the Ice Kilometer over a world-class field of ice swimmers today.”
Stoychev let the younger swimmers including 26-year-old Fergil Hesterman take out the pace very fast. After the 400m mark when he was 15 meters behind the leader, the four-time Bulgarian Olympian really started to pick up his pace and quickly passed his rivals.
His strategy was classically perfect. The 43-year-old skipped the 500m freestyle yesterday to extend his taper one more day. He slept well and ate lightly before the featured race at the International Ice Swimming Association 3rd World Championship and 1st Ice Swimming Arctic Cup.
His technique was also flawless. He took long breaths as he entered each of his open turns at the end of the ice pool carved out of Lapland Lake Semenovskoye. His kick was a controlled 2-beat kick throughout the race – except when he pushed off the wall where he accelerates with a powerful 6-8 beat kick. His streamlines off the wall and overall pacing over the 1000m course were classic.
It was his second consecutive Ice Kilometer world championship title in the 0.2°C water. Stoychev said, “Even at 0.2°C water temperature, I felt the support of everyone in Bulgaria. I improved my best time, setting a world championship record.”
International Ice Swimming Association Ice Kilometer World Championship Results:
1. Peter Stoychev (43) Bulgaria 12:10:81
2. Fergil Hesterman (26) Netherlands 12:42:89
3. Vladislav Sapozhikov (23) Russia 12:48:84
4. Christof Wandratsch (53) Germany 12:54:46
5. Paul Eugen Dorin Georgescu (41) Romania 13:02:04
6. James Leitch (44) Great Britain 13:16:73
7. Albert Sobirov (41) Russia 13:42:21
8. Remigiusz Golebiowski (43) Poland 13:57:69
9. Stefan Runge (52) Germany 14:03:52
10. Pavel Bainov (33) Russia 14:20:26
11. Diego López Dominguez (38) Spain 14:23:66
12. Kubiak Krzysztof (30) Poland 14:24:59
13. Rory Fitzgerald (61) Great Britain 14:33:70
14. Mario Fernandez Gorgojo (40) Spain 14:42:66
15. Piotr Biankowski (44) Poland 14:44:06
16. John Myatt (47) Great Britain 15:23:22
17. Raymond Oosterbaan (42) Netherlands 15:25:11
18. Neil Hopkins (38) South Africa 15:25:27
19. Henri Kaarma (45) Estonia 15:40:13
20. Tomasz Lutkowski (44) Poland 15:46:06
21. Kong Mak Chun (33) China 15:52:68
22. John Ryan (51) Ireland 15:52:68
23. Jakub Valnicek (49) Czech Republic 15:53:42
24. Charl Allen (31) South Africa 15:55:07
25. Scott Lautman (67) USA 16:00:24
26. Igor Filatov (45) Russia 16:06:63
27. Rafał Domeracki (37) Poland 16:41:46
28. Oleg Chekushkin (56) Russia 16:43:46
29. Sergey Fedotov (30) Russia 16:48:76
30. Lars Mack (44) Germany 16:54:45
31. Martin Kuchenmeister (50) Germany 16:56:94
32. Michal Štengl (41) Czech Republic 16:56:96
33. Jaroslav Pekárek (42) Czech Republic 17:10:95
34. Patrick Corcoran (44) Ireland 17:14:27
35. Mark Dempsey (44) Ireland 17:15:14
36. Alexander Schilder (28) Netherlands 17:22:36
37. Ram Barkai (62) South Africa 17:32:61
38. Colin Lindsay (45) Great Britain 17:43:33
39. Charalampos Theodosis (43) Greece 17:50:63
40. Matthias Kassner (52) Germany 17:53:97
41. Stefan Jung (55) Germany 18:03:41
42. Vladimir Chegorin (56) Russia 18:17:63
43. Leszek Naziemiec (45) Poland 18:33:80
44. Paddy Bond (40) Ireland 18:54:76
45. Mark Guest (50) Great Britain 19:16:23
46. Alistair Bell (33) Great Britain 19:25:15
47. Tom Maydon (39) South Africa 19:32:81
48. Jonathan Coe (67) Great Britain 19:41:81
49. Rene Wolber (32) Austria 19:57:67
50. Andrey Zamyslov (46) Austria 20:08:14
51. Adrian Alejandro Wittwer (32) Switzerland 20:15:54
52. Ivan Kupriyanov (34) Russia 20:17:21
53. David Coleman (62) New Zealand 21:09:33
54. Alexandre Fuzeau (53) France 21:38:95
55. Mark Grzywa (44) Poland 21:44:61
56. David Haslauer (24) Austria 22:02:98
57. Alexandr Brylin (43) Russia 22:03:25
58. Johannes Kapeller (44) Austria 22:07:43
59. Ren Feng Wang (48) China 24:05:04
1000m Ice Kilometer video highlights courtesy of Colin Hill:
For more information, visit www.murmanskiceswimming.ru.
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