Marc-Antoine Olivier (left) and Leonie Beck bite their gold medals after recording wins at Katara Beach yesterday.
Germany’s Leonie Beck yesterday produced dazzling performance as she stunned big open water stars with a thrilling victory in the women’s race at the season-opening meet of FINA Marathon Swim World Series 2020.
The stunning Katara Beach offered good conditions for the swimmers in the gruelling 10km races, with Rio Olympics bronze medalist Marc-Antoine Olivier of France reigning supreme in the men’s race.
But the star of the day was Beck, who was the fastest in the star-studded women’s race, clocking 1:56’41.1 to win her maiden international title.
The race featured the likes of reigning Olympic champion Sharon Van Rouwendaal of Netherlands, Brazilian star Ana Marcela Cunha - the 2019 FINA Female Best Open Water Swimmer - and Italy’s 2019 overall winner of the series Rachele Bruni.
“I never expected to win this race. This is a big surprise for me,” a jubilant Beck told The Peninsula after her victory.
“My target was to finish among the top swimmers. I am so happy to win this race. It is my first international victory,” the 22-year-old added.
Beck’s sprint of 22:16.4 in the final lap of 5-lap battle gave her the victory as she edged Cunha and Sharon by just 0.2sec.
Cunha, the 2019 champion in Doha, took the silver medal after she was shown finishing slightly ahead of Sharon on camera. The Dutch Olympic star was handed the bronze medal.
“It was such a close race. I didn’t know what was happening when we were about to finish the race. I was just concentrating on swimming fast and had no idea which position I am in. It was such a close race,” said Beck before adding the conditions were good for the race.
“The temperature of water was fine as the sun was shining. The conditions were good to compete,” Beck added.
Also competing in the women’s race, former European champion Arianna Bridi of Italy got fourth position for her time of 1:56’42.4 while America’s Olympic silver medalist Haley Anderson finished fifth after clocking 1:56’42.9. Italy’s Bruni touched the finish-line after 1:56’43.9 for sixth position.
All the 53 athletes finished the women’s race.
Meanwhile, the men’s race was not that close as Olivier took victory with a clear margin of 12.6sec, racing to win in 1:49’46.6. The 24-year-old made a surge in the final 500m and outpaced three opponents during the course to bag his first title in Doha.
“I am very happy to win the first race of the Olympic season,” Olivier said yesterday.
“It was technically a different and difficult race for me and winning in it will give me confidence for the other events especially for the Tokyo Olympics. I will work more to give myself a chance to win a gold medal at Olympics,” he added.
“The water temperature was 17 degrees and we had to use neoprene suit which slowed us down a bit,” he added.
Germany’s Rob Muffels won the silver medal with a time of 1:49’59.2, while his compatriot Florian Wellbrock – the reigning world champion and defending champion in Doha – bagged a bronze medal after he finished the race in 1:49’59.3.
Frenchman Fares Zitouni and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri took fourth and fifth positions respectively, while Dutchman Ferry Weertman , who won the 2018 meet in the Qatari capital, completed the race in 1:50’02.6 to finish sixth.
Hungary’s 2019 overall champion Kristóf Rasovszky endured a shaky start to the season as he took 1:52’08.9 to reach the finish line.
A total of 75 swimmers out of 82 completed the men's race.
Doha staged the FINA Marathon for third consecutive year. Victoria (SEY) will be the second stop of 10-meet series with the races scheduled to be held on May 3.
