2008 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships – Women's 10K

The Women's 10K race at the 2008 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships was swum on Saturday, May 3, 2008 in Seville, Spain. It was the first event of the 2008 Open Water Worlds.

The race began at 10:00 a.m., and was swum in the Guadalquivir River in the city center. 51 women swam the event.

The 10 kilometer distance of the race was reached by completed 4 laps of the 2.5-kilometer course set up for the championships.

The Women's 10K was one of two races at the 2008 Open Water Worlds that served as a qualifier for the 2008 Olympics (the other qualifying race was the men's 10K, the next day).

The top-10 finishers and the next top finisher from each Continent (5) qualified for the 2008 Olympics (this comprised 15 of the 25 spots for the event at the 2008 Olympics). However, the 5 continental qualifiers could not be from a country that had someone in the top-10 (i.e. the second qualifier from a country couldn't be a continental qualifier). As Africa only had entrants from South Africa, and Natalie du Toit qualified via the top-10, the Africa Continental spot was re-allocated to the second qualify event later in 2008.

Also of note on du Toit: she became the first Paralympic athlete to qualify for an Olympics with her fourth-place finish in the race. She would go on to swim at both the 2008 Olympics and 2008 Paralympics.

All times in hours:minutes:seconds

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