The last swimming gold of the London Olympics went to the first African male ever to win Olympic gold in swimming, Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, who added to his London tally with gold in the men’s 10km open water swim.
Swimming, Men’s 10km Marathon: Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli Earns Open Water Gold
Mellouli was already known as one of the top distance swimmers in the world: he won gold in the men’s 1500m swim in Beijing and took bronze this time around. But he tried the swimming marathon for the first time this spring and, as you can probably tell by the fact that he won gold, the newcomer isn’t too bad at it. Mellouli accounts for two of Tunisia’s three medals in London. He is also the first ever to medal both in the pool and in an open water events after the introduction of the 10km swim in 2008.
Mellouli kept pace with a tight pack for most of the beginning of the race, held in the Serpentine at London’s famous Hyde Park, but towards the end it became clear that he had a burst of speed from his experience in the pool that none of the other swimmers were capable of matching. He beat Germany’s Thomas Lurz, who won bronze in 2008, to the finish line by 3.4 seconds.
Here’s the podium and the times of the swimmers who earned medals:
Gold: Oussama Mellouli, Tunisia, 1:49:55.1
Silver: Thomas Lurz, Germany, 1:49:58.5
Bronze: Richard Weinberger, Canada, 1:50:00.3
For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation’s London 2012 Olympics hub.
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