PARIS (AP) — Kristóf Rasovszky of Hungary wrapped up Olympic swimming events in the Seine River by winning the men’s 10-kilometer marathon race Friday.
Battling strong currents on a sunny, breezy morning, Rasovszky set the pace most of the race and held off Germany’s Oliver Klemet in an all-out sprint to the finish. The winner touched in 1 hour, 50 minutes, 52.7 seconds, with Klemet 2.1 seconds behind.
Rasovszky settled for silver in this event at the Tokyo Games. Now, he’s got a gold.
The bronze went to another Hungarian, David Betlehem, who expressed strong objections to competing in the long-polluted Seine. He slapped the finishing pad just six-tenths of a second ahead of Italy’s Domenico Acerenza.
Betlehem and Rasovszky hugged jubilantly, celebrating a pair of medals for their homeland.
The defending Olympic champion, Florian Wellbrock of Germany, fell away from the lead pack on the final lap and finished eighth.
With the closing ceremony just two days away, the Seine finale was sure to be hailed as a triumph by Paris organizers after massive efforts to clean up a river where swimming had been largely banned for more than century.
Irish star Daniel Wiffen, winner of the 800-meter freestyle during competition at the pool, competed in an open water race for the first time. He finished 18th, nearly 6 1/2 minutes behind the winner.
Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy, the bronze medalist three years ago in Tokyo, was ninth.
Paris undertook a massive effort to clean up its iconic river for Olympic events, but concerns about bacteria levels lingered into the games.
There were some scheduling disruptions for the triathlon races and reports of athletes falling ill. Bacteria levels were deemed unsafe as recently as Tuesday when an open water training session was canceled.
But sunny weather and a lack of rain brought the water readings within acceptable levels, allowing open water to go ahead as planned in a spectacular setting with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop and the ornate Pont Alexander III providing an overlook of the starting buoy and finishing chute.
Thousands of fans lined the banks, cheering on swimmers who were almost close enough to touch on the return leg of each 1.67-kilometer (1-mile) lap as they hugged the shoreline to avoid the river’s current as much as possible.
In perhaps the ultimate tribute to the cleanup efforts, women’s marathon winner Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands said she took several gulps of river water during her victory Thursday, declaring it cold and refreshing.
It will be interesting to see in the days to come if any athletes become sick, but for now it appears that Paris has pulled off what some thought was a downright foolish idea: swimming in the Seine.
The men’s race was set to have 32 swimmers, but two decided at the last minute not to compete and four more dropped out without finishing the grueling event.
