Eric Hedlin wins Silver in Breakout Swim at the Pan Pacs 10km Open Water Race!

Eric Hedlin had a breakthrough swim at the Pan-Pacs in Tokyo today placing 2nd behind American Jordan Wilimovsky.   The Pan-Pacs and Europeans are the 2 major competitions in current cycle and while Eric had previously finished in the medals in the 5km distance he had not been able to translate that success to the 10km Olympic distance until today!

It was the first international medal in five years for Hedlin, the 2013 world silver medallist in the 5-km.

“I feel really happy,” said Hedlin, who raised his arms in jubilation after crossing the finish line

6.2 seconds behind 2015 world champion and 2017 world silver medallist Jordan Wilimovsky of Team USA.

“I wanted to come first but Jordan is a really strong swimmer, so I thought realistically my best shot was second, hoping for Top 5. I’m very happy with that,” said Hedlin, 25.

Fourteen men and fifteen women completed five laps of a two-kilometre course at Tateyama’s Hojo Beach on Tokyo Bay. Hedlin led for the second, third and most of the fourth lap, but towards the end of the fourth lap Wilimovsky pulled ahead. Australian Nicholas Sloman settled for bronze, finishing 30.3 seconds behind Wilimovsky after taking the early lead.

“Jordan’s very strong and I knew that he was going to lift at the end,” Hedlin said. “It’s definitely encouraging. To be on track for Top 10 at worlds is my goal, and to hopefully qualify for the Olympics. Definitely I needed to finish within the top few here to be confident going into next year because there’s a whole bunch of strong swimmers over in Europe. I feel like I’m on track and I know what I need to do.”