Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre
| Men's Marathon Swim at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
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The race was held in the Serpentine lake
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| Venue | The Serpentine, Hyde Park | ||||||||||||
| Dates | August 10, 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 25 from 23 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:49:55.1 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Oussama Mellouli |
 Tunisia
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Thomas Lurz |
 Germany
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Richard Weinberger |
 Canada
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The men's marathon swim over a distance of 10 kilometres at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place on 10 August in the Serpentine at Hyde Park.
Outclassing a vast field of rivals, Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli built a historic milestone as the first ever swimmer to capture Olympic titles in both pool and open water. Around the 7 km mark, Mellouli quickly opened up a three-body-length lead over a small pack of swimmers, and maintained a fast pace to claim his second gold and third career medal in 1:49:55.1. Chasing for two more Olympic medals in a grueling race, Germany's Thomas Lurz finished behind the leader by 3.4 seconds with a silver in 1:49:58.5, while Canada's Richard Weinberger, who pulled off a powerful lead on the first lap, grabbed the bronze in 1:50:00.3.
Greece's Spyridon Gianniotis, the reigning world champion, mounted a spirited challenge against Mellouli, Lurz and Weinberger in pursuit, but dropped back in the last 200 metres to fourth in 1:50:05.3. Enjoying a massive support from the home crowd at Hyde Park, Great Britain's Daniel Fogg struggled to maintain his form after the fourth lap, but pushed himself further from behind with a spectacular swim to claim a fifth spot in 1:50:37.3. Fogg was followed in sixth and seventh respectively by Russian duo Sergey Bolshakov (1:50:40.1) and Vladimir Dyatchin (1:50:42.8), while Lurz's teammate Andreas Waschburger, who led both the third and fourth lap ahead of Mellouli and Weinberger, faded down the stretch to pick up the eighth spot in 1:50:44.4. Bulgaria's four-time Olympian Petar Stoychev finished ninth in 1:50:46.2 to hold off a fast-charging American open water swimmer Alex Meyer (1:50:48.2) by exactly two full-body lengths apart from the distance.
As the remaining swimmers completed the race in a magnificent fashion, Guam's 16-year-old teen Benjamin Schulte, dubbed as Benny the Bream by the crowd, fought off audaciously throughout the open-water course to round out the field with a twenty-fifth place time in 2:03:35.1.
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