German world champion Florian Wellbrock added Olympic marathon swimming gold to his 1500m bronze with a dominant performance in hot conditions in Tokyo Bay on Thursday.
Wellbrock swam the 10 kilometres (six miles) in 1hr 48min 33.7sec, more than 25 seconds clear of Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky (1:48:59.0). Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri took the bronze in 1:49:01.1.
Wellbrock and Paltrinieri became just the second and third athletes to win pool and open-water medals at the same Olympics, after Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli grabbed marathon gold and 1500m bronze at London 2012.
“The first seven kilometres was really easy,” said Wellbrock. “The water wasn’t really warm, so then I keep up the pace and the last leg was horrible.