Shanghai Roundup: China Stays Perfect on the Boards, Gold for US Open Water 5k Team

In the first incarnation of the “team 5k” event at the World Aquatics Championships, the USA drew their first gold medals of the Championship with a win by the team of Ashley Twichell, Sean Ryan, and Andrew Gemmell.

This unique event, that is similar to speed-skatings “team pursuit” event in concept, places three swimmers from each country in the water simultaneously (at least one must be a woman). The swimmers are then timed, in a time trial, at the point when their last swimmer crosses the finish line.

The races are carried out, in practice, differently than they are in speed skating however. The Americans stayed in the same order throughout the race (Gemmell breaking the water, with Sean Ryan sitting 2nd and Ashley Twichell receiving the full benefit of the draft in 3rd). The clock stopped for the US squad when Twichell crossed the line in 57:0o.06. As a comparison of the drafting benefits, Twichell, who was the 5k National Champion, swam the race more than a minute faster than she did at Open Water Nationals a few weeks ago in Ft. Lauderdale (58:11.87). In comparison, Sean Ryan (who won the men’s 5k) slowed his paced down by roughly four minutes in this race.

The Australians, who appeared to use a slightly more “off the hip” formation than the Americans (who were more nose-to-toes), finished 2nd in 57:01.4. Interestingly, their’s was the only squad in the entire race where the female competitor (Melissa Gorman) crossed the line first. It was hard to see from the camera angle if she led the race the entire way or not, but it’s interesting that they would let the (theoretically) slowest competitor be the first across the line.

Final Results
1. USA (57:00.06)
2. Australia (57:01.08)
3. Germany (57:44.2)

Full Results available here…

…In diving, the Chinese kept their perfect streak alive with a win from Ruolin Chen on the women’s 10-meter. In 7 events thus far, China has been awarded 7 gold medals. Additionally, out of a possible 3 silvers (synchronized diving only allows one entry per team), China has won all three as well. Hu Yadan, also of China, took silver, with 2009 gold medalist Paola Espinosa of Mexico finishing 3rd. The Chinese should continue to roll through both the men’s and women’s 3-meters, meaning that the best chance for them to slip up will be the men’s 10-meter final on Sunday, the last day of competition. There, they will face Britain’s Tom Daley, who won gold in 2009 when he was only 15…

…With the announcement of the CAS’ decision not to ban Cesar Cielo and two of the other three Brazilians for their positive furosemide tests, expect the release of the swimming start lists/psych sheets to come shortly. All are presently asleep in Shanghai, but they will likely go live as the FINA committee in Shanghai awakes around 8 PM US time tonight. We’ll post a link as soon as we have one…