On July 26, Lac St. Jean (Québec, CAN) came alive with the staging of the seventh leg of the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix 2008, which was a distance of 32km from Péribonka to Roberval. It was the legendary Petar Stoychev who prevailed with a solid win over the rest of the field in 7h39m13sec. His closest challenger, Brendan Capell (AUS) finished about five minutes behind. Meanwhile, the winner of the women’s race was another experienced open water swimmer, Natalya Pankina (RUS) in 8h36m35sec. She was trailed rather closely by another Australian, Shelley Clark, but still took the win by about a minute. The excitement of the race was accentuated by the dramatic conditions, including waves of up to 1m and winds gusting to 50km/hour. Prize money amounted to US$40,000.


MEN’S MEDALLISTS
1. Petar Stoychev (BUL) 7h39m13s
2. Brendan Capell (AUS) 7h44m35s
3. Simon Tobin (CAN) 7h49m11s

WOMEN’S MEDALLISTS
1. Natalya Pankina (RUS) 8h36m35s
2. Shelley Clark (AUS) 8h37m37s
3. Steffanie Biller (GER) 8h40m53s

Two days earlier, on Thursday, July 24, the fourth leg of the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup also took place on Lac St. Jean under rough conditions (choppy water, strong wind and heavy rain), ending in victory for Egypt’s Mazen Aziz in the men’s field of 10 swimmers, and Angela Maurer (GER) in the women’s field of just eight competitors. Aziz finished in a time of 2.04.15.84, and Maurer in a time of 2.13.57.49. Both wins were close but clean, as all the men’s medallists finished within a second of one another, and the top-three women were also no more than a fraction apart at the end. This was the last FINA 10km World Cup stage before Beijing next month, when this distance will be swum as an Olympic event for the first time ever.

Rounding out the podium for the men was Petar Stoychev in 2.04.16.30 and Fran Crippen (USA, 2.04.16.87, who raced to the end in a duel for silver. In the women’s field, taking silver behind Maurer was her compatriot Britta Kamrau-Corestein (GER, 2.14.28.58), while bronze went to another Australian Lucy Redgrove (2.15.10.65).