Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Like Canadian teammate Stéphanie Horner, Philippe Guertin took a major step by winning 10 km race at the FINA/HOSA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup at Lac St. Jean (Traversee international du Lac St-Jean).
And like Horner in the women’s race, Guertin, another Quebec native, won the men’s race in 1:57:05, just slightly ahead of American Chip Peterson in second (1:57:09) and Germany’s Andreas Waschburger in third (1:57:20).
Two Canadians quickly followed: Eric Hedlin in 1:57:21 and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Richard Weinberger in 1:57.26 in fifth after experiencing breathing issues.
Guertin and Peterson separated from the lead pack at 3 km mark and were never challenged again. “To be back on the senior national team means everything to me right now,” Guertin said. “I missed the team for [the 2015 FINA World Championships] last year because I broke my hand during the selection [race] when I hit it on a buoy.
Today I dove in the water and took the lead from the beginning. I just felt good. I didn’t feel that made a push. It was just that when the waves started to pick up, I started to get a better lead, and I just tried to keep that to the end.”
Weinberger said he was just past the 2 km mark when he encountered difficulty. “I’m very positive about this race. I was third in Hungary [at the last FINA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup race on June 18th]. Fifth is not a bad position to be in, considering the competition I was in with, from Canada. They were 100%.
I kind of perfected my stroke during the race. On the far end away from the start and finish pontoon and the touch pad, there was a lot of chop and it helped my stroke. I had really good fitness. What happened in the race was I started having a breathing issue and couldn’t kick into my fast gear. I noticed an issue at around 1½ laps.
I know what I can fix. I’ll be better prepared for this sort of environment in Rio.”
1. Philippe Guertin (Canada) 1:57:05
2. Chip Peterson (USA) 1:57:09
3. Andreas Waschburger (Germany) 1:57:20
4. Eric Hedlin (Canada) 1:57:21
5. Richard Weinberger (Canada) 1:57:26
6. Pepijin Smits (Netherlands) 1:57:32
7. Damien Cattin-Vidal (France) 1:57:44
8. Christian Reichert (Gemany) 1:57:45
9. Santiago Enderica (Ecuador) 1:57:49
10. Nicolas Masse-Savard (Canada) 1:57:20
Philippe Guertin is congratulated by Régis Labeaume, Ginette Fortin, Marc-Olivier Fortin, and David de Vlieger of UANA.
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