17 August,2016 07:09 AM IST | | AFP
Ferry Weertman won a ferocious battle for the men’s 10km open water swimming gold at the Rio Olympics yesterday, edging Spiros Gianniotis in a frantic photo finish to cap a Dutch open water double
Rio de Janeiro: Ferry Weertman won a ferocious battle for the men's 10km open water swimming gold at the Rio Olympics yesterday, edging Spiros Gianniotis in a frantic photo finish to cap a Dutch open water double.
Weertman's triumph by the narrowest of margins - both he and Gianniotis were credited with a time of 1hr 52min 59.8sec - followed teammate Sharon van Rousendaal's victory in the women's race off Copacabana beach on Monday.
But the 24-year-old Weertman's win bore little resemblance to van Rouwendaal's victory by a margin of more than 17 seconds. Open water swimming was added to the Olympic programme in Beijing in 2008.
