The 2018 Midmar Mile open water race took place over the weekend at the Midmar Dam north of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Recognized in the past by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest open water swimming event, the race is segmented into group divisions by age, with elite swimmers typically entered in the respective men’s and women’s 14 to 30 group.
American Ashley Twichell ran away with the women’s title, successfully defending her gold medal from last year’s edition of the race. Clocking an overall time of 19:12, Twichell claimed her 4th Midmar Mile victory overall, having won previously in 2013, 2014 and 2017. The 5k gold medalist from last year’s World Championships finished just over a minute faster than this year’s runner-up, Marit Anderson of Canada, who slammed the timepad in 20:14, while South African Michelle Weber settled for bronze in 20:15.
Although 7-time winner Chad Ho of South Africa was among the leaders throughout the race, Russian Kirill Abrosimov ultimately came out on top, clocking 18:56 for gold. Review of the finish footage determined British swimmer Ashley Hogg sneaked in for silver ahead of Ho, each registering a time of 19:08.
Although this is Abrosimov’s first Midmar Mile victory, he was the 10k silver medalist at the 2017 European Open Water Swimming Cup, while also finishing 4th in the 5k event at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Hungary.
Why were the men’s time’s so slow or was Ashley Twichell incredibly fast-her time was almost as fast as the second and third placed men.
Sunday (when the men’s event was held) had swimmers going right into some wind & chop. Conditions were a fair bit calmer on Saturday for the women’s race. Kirill also got on a bit of weird line to the finish when he broke away from the group as well.
Not to take anything away from Ashley though, 19:12 is flying!
This isn’t correct. Both the men’s and women’s races are held on Sunday with start times an hour and 15 mins of each other. You are correct that she was flying… but conditions were pretty much the same for both races.