World Championships: Leonie Beck Edges Out Sharon van Rouwendaal, Wins Second Gold Medal in 5K

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Leonie Beck -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

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World Championships: Leonie Beck Edges Out Sharon van Rouwendaal, Wins Second Gold Medal in 5K

The last three days in Fukuoka have resulted in the best performance of Leonie Beck’s career. A final lap surge lifted Beck to gold in the 10-kilometer open water swim Saturday, and now the 26-year-old German has added the 5K title to her ledger. Beck fell behind the field early on in the 5K event, as far as 15 seconds off the lead at the halfway point, but she again showed off the best finishing speed in the field to overtake veterans Sharon van Rouwendaal and Ana Marcela Cunha for gold.

Beck finished in 59:31.7, one second ahead of the Netherlands’ van Rouwendaal (59:32.7). Brazil’s Cunha touched in 59:33.9 to secure bronze. The three swimmers had to work all the way to the finish with the top 12 performers all coming in within 20 seconds of each other.

Beck’s gold was the third world title of her career, adding to the 10K title and last year’s win in the mixed team relay. Beck was the Worlds silver medalist behind Van Rouwendaal in the 10K last year, and she also finished with a bronze medal in the 5K back in 2019. Van Rouwendaal, one of the most consistent open water performers over the past eight years, won the eighth Worlds medal of her career (six open water plus two pool) while Cunha secured her 15th, having now won medals at seven consecutive World Championships.

The performance was a rebound for both the silver and bronze medalists after they narrowly missed the podium in a photo finish in the 10K. Van Rouwendaal, Cunha and the United States’ Katie Grimes each came to the wall at nearly the same time, and van Rouwendaal appeared to have a beat on the bronze medal looked as though she could get the bronze with one final reach. But she chose to take an extra stroke, allowing Grimes to sneak in one tenth ahead, leaving van Rouwendaal and Cunha in a tie for fourth.

The results of the 10K had extra significance with only the three medal-winners securing their spots at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, so van Rouwendaal and Cunha will each have to secure their places at the next World Championships in February in Doha, Qatar. Both have won 10K Olympic titles in the past, van Rouwendaal in 2016 and Cunha in 2021.

Portugal’s Angelica Andre missed the medals by just 1.7 seconds, touching fourth in 59:35.6, with Italy’s Barbara Pozzobon (59:35.8) and Brazil’s Viviane Jungblut (59:38.2) just behind. France’s Aurelie Muller, the 2015 and 2017 world champion in the 10K, sat third at the final split but fell to seventh in 59:40.1.

The rest of the tight top-12 included Hungary’s Bettina Fabian (59:44.2), Portugal’s Mafalda Rosa (59:44.5), Australia’s Moesha Johnson (59:46.3), France’s Anastasiia Kirpichnikova (59:46.4) and Spain’s Angela Martinez Guillen (59:50.3).

Grimes and Australia’s Chelsea Gubecka, the silver medalist in the 10K, did not enter the 5K.

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