Budapest 2022: Olympic queen, Sharon van Rouwendaal dazzles, wins first 10km open water world title
From George Aluo, Budapest
Netherland’s Rio Olympic champion Sharon van Rouwendaal was on top of her game here in Budapest as she coasted home to victory in the Women’s 10km open water event.
Sharon van Rouwendaal won a fierce battle in the final sprint in the last meters of the 10km race that ended with her hand, the first among 58 swimmers, decisively striking the touchpad at 2:02.29.2.
With today’s victory, she and Russia’s Larisa Ilchenko are the only women to have won this event at the Olympic Games, European Championships and the FINA World Championships.
Ilchenko was the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in the inaugural Marathon 10k. Ironically a race in which today’s 10km bronze medalist, Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) finished in 5th place nearly 14 years ago at the Beijing Summer Games. Ilchenko was also the FINA World champion in 2007.
After the race, the golden girl told FINA media that it was a pretty difficult event.
Hear her…”It’s pretty hard. All the time you have to find a different tactic and a different way to swim a 10km and today I think I did the perfect race. Today I was top fit and I felt really good. I was waiting for my moment and then in the end everything fell together – everything I had in my head fell together.
“I think I did a really good sprint, and I focused on myself and didn’t look at the other girls and just looked at the finish and (swam) to get there as fast as possible.”
Continuing, van Rouwendaal added. “I had a good feeling the whole race even if I was very far behind in the beginning. Every lap I felt sort of fresh and I could build up until the end. I really love Budapest and I won two golds here last year (at Europeans) and the conditions are perfect. FINA organized it really well and it is a super nice place for holidays, but we have to race here and I really like this lake.”
It would be noted that the Open Water race is taking place at the Lupa Lake.
