BIRCHER TAKES WORLD CUP TITLE IN LONDON
University of Bath's Alan Bircher rounded off an excellent
weekend for British Open Water Swimming with gold in the FINA
Marathon Swimming World Cup.
Bircher, who returned to England just two months ago after
more than a year spent training in Germany, completed the
10k course in 2 hours and 47 seconds despite not tapering
for the meet.
"I'm quite surprised with that result - I didn't think
I'd have the speed at the end," he admitted. "That's
the kind of swim I need to get back on form and challenge
the big boys, and it's a big boost before the Europeans next
month.
"The water was a bit choppy which tends to be easier
for the bigger guys and I was getting through the waves without
too much problem. The conditions in Budapest are likely to
be similar today as it's a sea swim, so it was good preparation."
Bircher tucked himself in behind the leading pack for the
first lap of the course before breaking away to be part of
a smaller group at the front.
"The first lap was easy," he explained. "I
just sat behind the pack and waited - I was patient for once.
On the second lap, El-Zanaty and Blaum opened up the field
and made a 40m lead, so I tried to catch them up at the far
buoy and break the field some more.
"I made a couple of breaks on the third lap and no one
came with me, so I pushed it down the home straight to earn
a spot prize and then waited for the pair at the other end.
We worked together along the far stretch, but on the last
1,000m it was everyone for themselves.
"With 500m to go it felt pretty comfortable and I gave
it a bit of a kick to see if El-Zanaty could keep up with
the pace. He was struggling, so with 100m left I went for
it, but he stayed on my shoulder for the first part, which
was a bit of a surprise, then I managed to get a body length
clear on the last 25m and touch the wall first."
Today's win was even more prominent for Bircher who lost
out to El-Zanaty in the same event last year during what he
refers to as a 'disastrous 12 months', which led to his return
to the UK.
"I've been back training with Andre [Vorontsov] for
about eight weeks and I don't know if the training's made
as much difference as the fact I'm a lot happier with my swimming
now," he said. "I feel better in the water. There's
still a way to go to get back to the form I was in in 2004
which is where I need to be, but that swim certainly shows
I'm moving in the right direction."
Egyptian Mohamed El-Zanaty, who won the FINA World Cup event
in London last year touched behind Bircher for silver in 2
hours and 49 seconds and Damian Blaum of Argentina won bronze
in 2 hours and 56 seconds. In the women's event, Germany's
Stefanie Biller and Angela Maurer won gold and bronze and
Esther Nunez of Spain took the silver.
In this morning's Junior International 3k event, Britain's
Matthew Vyse (Hatfield) and Craig Jackson (Greenwich) won
silver and bronze in 36m25s and 36m27s respectively, while
South Africa's Chad Ho won gold in 35m48s. The South Africans
were also dominant in the girls' event making all three podium
places.
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