Richard Weinberger takes bronze in men’s open-water marathon swim

Victoria's Richard Weinberger has captured a bronze in the men's open-water marathon swim finishing the 10-kilometre race with a time of 1:50:00.3.

He finished five seconds behind 1500-metre bronze medalist Ousamma Mellouli of Tunisia and less than two seconds behind favourite Thomas Lurz of Germany.

Weinberger was considered a favourite going into the event having won the test event in London last year and he won the last World Cup before the Olympics.

Weinberger swam with the lead pack for most of the race and when the pace started to pick up he stayed with the leaders. Mellouli, who is more known for his pool swimming, separated himself from everyone on the final laps and cruised to victory in the final few hundred metres. He was the same person who was chasing down Canadian swimmer Ryan Cochrane in the 1500-metre five days ago for second. Cochrane was able to hole him off as Mellouli won bronze in that event. Mellouli also won a gold in the 1500m in Beijing.

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Mellouli may have had an advantage because the waters of the Serpentine in Hyde Park were relatively calm and more like a pool as opposed to the oceans or seas where racers usually compete. Often swimmers have to deal with waves, current and wildlife.

Canadian marathon swimmer Zsofia Balazs told the Toronto Star she once saw a fish eat another fish while she was racing and it freaked her out. Usually swimmers are in their own lane staring down at a black line through chlorinated water, but a lot of the time in the open water it's murky.

Weinberger has said he freaks out if he sees wildlife, but if it's really murky and he doesn't see anything his imagination can run away and he freaks out even more. Luckily for the swimmers in London, officials skimmed the water to remove weeds and put up fences to try to keep ducks out of the way. They also put food on the other side of the fences to lure the ducks away from the swimmers.

Because there is no black line swimmers have no idea where they are going with their heads down. So while it's faster and conserves energy to swim with the head down, swimmers must look up during breathes once in a while to look where they are going. They often swim beside other racers so they can look around less, but if the racers next to them goes the wrong way, the entire pack can go off course.

The other big difference between the open water and a pool is that open water races are really long. The longest pool event lasts less than 15 minutes, but this race lasts more than seven times longer so swimmers must fuel while swimming. They gracefully grab a bottle, turn on their back and while swimming one-armed backstroke take a few sips and then throw the bottle away and keep swimming.

Marathon swimming is a relatively new event to the Olympics making its debut in Beijing. Lurz won the event in 2008.

The lone Canadian female swimmer in the event, Balazs, finished 18th yesterday.

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