Canadian Open Water Swimmer Richard Weinberger Impressive In World Championship Debut

Original story from the Swimming Canada website. Click here for the full story and video interviews.

SHANGHAI – Richard Weinberger of Victoria finished less than a half minute from the winning time for 16th place on Wednesday in the men’s 10-kilometre open water race at the FINA World Aquatic Championships.

Spyros Gianniotis of Greece overtook defending champion Thomas Lurz of Germany down the stretch for the gold medal. Gianniotis broke free of a pack of swimmers after the final turn and passed Lurz and Britain's Daniel Lee Fogg, who had led for most of the race.

The Greek swimmer finished in one hour 54 minutes 24.7 seconds. Lurz was 2.5 seconds behind in second place, with Russia's Sergey Bolshakov collecting bronze.

Weinberger, who has posted strong international results over the past couple of seasons, clocked 1:54:51.3 only 26 seconds behind Gianniotis.

‘’I’m pretty pleased with my race,’’ said Weinberger, 21. ‘’I was hoping for a top-10 but achieved most of my goals. The finishing sprint of the race was very challenging because the pace throughout was very fast. It was really difficult to get around guys. Great swimmers were falling off because the pace was so brutal.’’