2020 OLYMPIC MARATHON SWIMMING EVENT
- June 19-20,2021
- Sado River, Setubal, Portugal
- Full Entry List
- Meet page
- Results
Setubal, Portugal today hosted the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier for men after the women competed yesterday. This is the third consecutive time the city has hosted the event, with this year’s edition carrying 15 Olympic roster spots up for grabs for each gender.
As a refresher, those open water athletes already qualified via their top 10 finishes at the 2019 FINA World Championships are listed at the bottom of this post.
For the rest of the slots, this is the final opportunity to make the grade. The nine highest placed athletes for each event will obtain one quota place. Each nation can qualify a maximum of one athlete per gender.
In regards to the continental representation, the highest placed athlete in the 10km event, not yet qualified, from each of five continents will directly qualify. Additionally, the host country of Japan will automatically qualify one quota spot for men and one for women.
Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe took the top prize tonight in the men’s 10k race, hitting the time pad in a mark of 2:02:07.60. Greek athlete Athanasios Kynigakis earned runner-up status while Pardoe’s countryman, Tobias Robinson, round out the top 3.
Pardoe’s finish here is a solid follow-up to his 8th place result at the European Championships last month, with just one spot here being up for grabs for Great Britain. As such, Robinson is shut out of an Olympic roster spot.
Remarkably, with his 10th place finish, Ous Mellouli of Tunisia has qualified for his 6th Olympic Games, now at the age of 37. The former USC Trojan first competed at the 2000 Olympic Games and also raced in Athens before taking 1500m free gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He followed that up with bronze in the same event in London 4 years later. Also at those 2012 Games, Mellouli won the 10k open water event.
In Rio, Mellouli finished 12th in the men’s 10k event.
ATHLETES QUALIFIED
- HECTOR PARDOE (GBR) – qualified
- ATHANASIOS KYNIGAKIS (GRE) – qualified
- TOBIAS ROBINSON (GBR) – not qualified
- MATAN RODITI (ISR) – qualified
- KAI GRAEME EDWARDS (AUS) – qualified
- TAISHUN MINAMIDE (JPN) – qualified
- TIAGO CAMPOS (POR) – qualified
- KIRILL ABROSIMOV (RUS) – qualified
- DAVID FARINANGO (ECU) – qualified
- OUSSAMA MELLOULI (TUN) – qualified
- MICHAEL McGLYNN (RSA) – qualified
- DANIEL DELGADILLO (MEX) – qualified
CONTINENTAL QUALIFICATION
- MATEJ KOZUBEK (CZE) – EUROPE
- HAU-LI FAN (CAN) – AMERICA
- PHILLIP SEIDLER (NAM) – AFRICA
- WILLIAM YAN THORLEY (HKG) – ASIA
OPEN WATER ATHLETES QUALIFIED FOR TOKYO 2020 PRIOR TO SETUBAL:
MEN
- Florian WELLBROCK (GER)
- Marc-Antoine OLIVER (FRA)
- Rob MUFFLES (GER)
- Kristof RASOVSZKY (HUN)
- Jordan WILIMOVSKY (USA)
- Gregorio PLATRINIERI (ITA)
- Ferry WEERTMAN (NED)
- Alberto MARTINEZ (ESP)
- Mario SANZULLO (ITA)
- David AUBRY (FRA)
WOMEN
- Xin XIN (CHN)
- Haley ANDERSON (USA)
- Rachele BRUNI (ITA)
- Lara GRANGEON (FRA)
- Ana Marcela CUNHA (BRA)
- Ashley TWICHELL (USA)
- Kareena LEE (AUS)
- Finnia WUNRAM (GER)
- Leonie BECK (GER)
- Sharon van ROUWENDAAL (NED)
ATHLETES QUALIFIED
- HECTOR PARDOE (GBR) – qualified
- ATHANASIOS KYNIGAKIS (GRE) – qualified
- TOBIAS ROBINSON (GBR) – not qualified
- MATAN RODITI (ISR) – qualified
- KAI GRAEME EDWARDS (AUS) – qualified
- TAISHUN MINAMIDE (JPN) – qualified
- TIAGO CAMPOS (POR) – qualified
- KIRILL ABROSIMOV (RUS) – qualified
- DAVID FARINANGO (ECU) – qualified
- OUSSAMA MELLOULI (TUN) – qualified
- MICHAEL McGLYNN (RSA) – qualified
- DANIEL DELGADILLO (MEX) – qualified
CONTINENTAL QUALIFICATION
- MATEJ KOZUBEK (CZE) – EUROPE
- HAU-LI FAN (CAN) – AMERICA
- PHILLIP SEIDLER (NAM) – AFRICA
- WILLIAM YAN THORLEY (HKG) – ASIA
When will Hector Pardoe swim in Tokyo?
August 5.
Women?
https://www.fina.org/competitions/8/fina-olympic-marathon-swim-qualifier-2020/results?event=923b2e7a-7e5b-415e-9fda-fa39542115f8
You must have missed it: https://staging2.swimswam.com/alice-dearing-becomes-britains-first-black-female-olympic-swimmer/
Yessir! Lets go ous.
I know time in open water races isn’t very important and it’s difficult to make comparisons, but still it’s impressive that yesterday the top women were faster than the men today.
The currents were probably rougher today
Women are notoriously better at longer distance swimming than men (relative to everything else, of course, but also in terms of pure ability- buoyancy makes a huge difference, as does muscular endurance- women have many such advantages over men in open water)
The women benefitted from the tide and had another position of the 3rd buoy. But yes that swam fast.
Although very impressive, 6 is not even close to the record and not “that” rare.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_athletes_with_the_most_appearances_at_Olympic_Games
Not to knock on these other athletes, but I think it’s fair to point out that a lot of them partake in sports that aren’t as taxing on the body as open water swimming, making this feat that much more impressive.
Absolutely. I just wanted to provide the “dry” numbers and not get into the details. No doubt that comparing swimming to shooting or equestrian is like apples and oranges
Two of the people on 8 did canoeing and rowing. I can assure you those are both very taxing.
Cox?
Thanks for that interesting link. Not surprised by the very top. And I already knew about Chuso (gymnastics) and Pechstein (speed skating) – which is insane when you think about it!
But I suppose for some there is a lot of ‘luck’ involved as well… that they never got injured so severely that they had to quit e.g.
I thought host country of Japan gets a spot not Portugal
You are correct. Swimswam got it wrong. Japan gets the spot
I thought he retired
Wow!