Open Water Swimming, Water Polo, Diving and Synchronized Swimming Recaps on The Morning Swim Show News Segment, July 22, 2009

PHOENIX, Arizona, July 22. RESULTS from open water swimming, water polo, diving and synchronized swimming highlight today's news segment of The Morning Swim Show.

Following is a transcript of the show, hosted by Jeff Commings. Click on the button on the right to view the show.

The men's 10K race was won today by Germany's Thomas Lurz, who was second in this race in 2007 by a fingernail. The results are not yet official, but the USA's Andrew Gemmell finished second ahead of teammate Fran Crippen, who crossed the finish line in third. The protest claims that Crippen briefly swam outside the borders of the finish chute and therefore should be disqualified. If the protest holds up, Italy's Valerio Cleri will take the bronze medal. The FINA Bureau will hear the appeal Thursday in Rome at 11 a.m., or 5 a.m. Eastern time. Our correspondent Steve Munatones is in Rome covering all the angles in the open water events and we'll know the outcome as soon as it becomes available, so check back here at swimmingworld.com for the latest.

The women's 10K open water race earlier today featured a lot of top talent. Russia's Larissa Ilchenko was seeking a sixth world title. Kerri-Anne Payne of Great Britain was looking to get one place higher than her silver medal performance at last year's Olympics. And Australia's Melissa Gorman was looking to win the 10K to go along with her 5K win yesterday.

Payne led from the beginning and never relinquished it. At the halfway mark, Ilchenko pulled out of the race, making way for a new world champion, which was to be decided between Payne and Italy's Martina Grimaldi. Payne won the race in two hours, one minute and 37.1 seconds. Russia's Ekaterina Seliverstova slipped in for the bronze just one second behind and Grimaldi won the bronze.

The United States men's water polo team continues to trounce the field in preliminary action. Today, the Americans won their match 13-6 over Macedonia. The US had beaten Italy 9-8 in their first round of play on Monday. As of the taping of this news segment, Croatia, China, Spain and Serbia also won their second-round matches. Preliminary play continues through Friday.

In diving, Canada's Alexandre Despatie won the semifinal round of the men's 3-meter with 485 points, almost two points ahead of China's He Chong, the reigning Olympic champion. Despatie is the 2005 world champion on the 3-meter but finished second in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics as well as the 2007 worlds. Troy Dumais sits in third position after the semis and his teammate Chris Colwill just made it into the finals in 11th place. Two divers who train in the United States, Mickey Benedetti of Italy and Arizona State University, is in 12th place. Rueben Ross of Canada and the University of Miami sits in the ninth spot. The finals will air live on universalsports.com at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday.

Spain won the team free routine after Russia elected not to compete in the event, thereby losing their chance to sweep the synchro gold medals. But Russia looks good to win the solo free routine after Natalia Ishchenko won the preliminaries with 98 points.

Pool swimming starts on Sunday and most of the teams are spending their time away from Rome preparing for eight days in the pool. The United States is spending 10 days in Riccione, about three hours away. The Australians are camped out in Great Britain and most of the European teams are staying in their home countries until Friday. We will have recaps of each day's swimming finals starting on Sunday right here on swimmingworld.com.

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