GRIMSEY UPSETS MELLOULI AND CO TO WIN MILE RACE IN SAN FRANCISCO
The Albany Creek 20-year-old youngster out-gunned the red-hot field to win the ninth crossing of the RCP Tiburon Mile, swum in 17 degree waters, to collect a prize cheque of $US10,000.
Grimsey finished third to Hackett and Craig Stevens at this year's Telstra Olympic Trials, clocking a personal best of 15:12.36 - the ninth fastest time by an Australian.
The rising Queenslander will have his long-term sights set on the 2012 London Olympics in both the 1500m freestyle and the 10km marathon.
Another rising open water swimmer Luane Rowe from Willoughby, NSW finished fourth in the women's race behind two-time world champion Britta Kamrau.
One of the world's premier open water's correspondents Steven Munatones filed this report for swimmingworldmagazine.com.
SAN FRANCISCO, California, October 6. TRENT Grimsey of Australia stunned the all-star field of pool and open water swimmers at the ninth RCP Tiburon Mile, winning by 14 seconds in 20:31 over Olympic 10K bronze medalist Thomas Lurz and world open water champion Vladimir Dyatchin.
In the highly anticipated race of pool and open water stars, Grimsey immediately shot out to the front and took his own line across the 1.2-mile channel from Angel Island to the City of Tiburon just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
A pack of Lurz, Dyatchin, Brendan Capell of Australia and Oussama Mellouli, the 1500 gold medallist, took a different conservative line to the finish, all drafting off each other, but they couldn't chase down the smooth-swimming Grimsey.
John Naber, who announced the event with Rowdy Gaines and Jonny Moseley, asked Grimsey after the race if he had any doubts of his strategy because we was swimming alone. "I didn't second-guess myself and once I went for it, I was committed to my plan."
Grimsey, who similarly dominated the 2008 Waikiki Roughwater Swim and did a 15:12 in the 1500-m freestyle in the Australia's Olympic Trials, said, "I decided to swim wide and go to the left [of the other swimmers] because I breathe to my right and I wanted to see the field. I basically went fast the entire race."
The race shaped up much differently on the women's side. The race was undecided until world open water champion Britta Kamrau of Germany and two-time world open water silver medallist Ekaterina Seliverstova of Russia reached the shoreline and both ran up the beach for the finish. "I am not good at running and I have never done a race where there is a run at the finish. I just put one step ahead of the other and beat [Seliverstova]," said Kamrau.
Kirsten Groome of Louisiana and Luane Rowe of Sydney followed closely behind the top two women to take third and fourth respectively.
As the open water world looks to the 2012 London Olympics, the importance of swimming fast in cold water has become ever more important. With an incredibly line-up of competitors swimming in the 63°F (17°C) waters of San Francisco Bay, the Tiburon Mile is a great event to help athletes prepare.
"I'll probably use some of the [$10,000] prize money to travel to the FINA World Cup races," said Grimsey who obviously has his eyes on a bigger prize.
1 Trent Grimsey 20:31
2 Thomas Lurz 20:45
3 Vladimir Dyatchin 20:46
4 Brendan Capell 20:47
5 Oussama Mellouli 20:52
6 Andrew Beato 21:14
7 Charles Cullom 21:16
8 John K. Koehler 21:37
9 Charles Peterson 21:44
10 Aljaz Ojstersek 21:46
11 Britt Kamrau 21:48
12 Ekaterina Seliverstova 21:49
13 Kirsten Groome 21:54
14 Luane Rowe 21:57
15 Alex Kostich 21:59
16 Eva Fabian 22:00
17 Dawn Heckman 22:00
18 Chloe Sutton 22:01
19 Noa Sakamoto 22:09
20 Charlie Rimkus 22:09
21 Stefan Troxel 22:10
22 Sergiy Fesenko 22:30
23 Angela Duckworth 22:34
24 Erik Vendt 22:37
25 John Flanagan 22:39
26 Isaac Howell 22:42
27 Madison Livingston 22:45
28 Gary Wright 22:46
29 Brock Redondo 22:51
30 Evgeny Bezruchenko 22:59