Silver medal for Davies

11:05pm Thursday 21st August 2008

Britain's David Davies took silver in the 10-kilometre open water marathon behind Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden after the 23-year-old dominated for most of the race on Thursday morning.

Davies put in a blistering burst of pace in the final 500 metres of the race in an attempt to burn off the rest of the field, but he just lost out in the final 100 metres to van der Weijden, who timed his move to perfection to finish in one hour 51 minutes 51.6 seconds.

Davies' silver medal completes a fine performance in the open water event for Great Britain, coming just 24 hours after Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten had won silver and bronze respectively in the women's race.

Former world champion Thomas Lurz was third as Davies, who was 1.5 seconds behind the winner, did enough to hold him off in the final push for the line.

With rain falling constantly, the conditions were perfect for open water swimming as the temperature dropped from the women's race the previous day.

Davies took the lead from the start, trying to establish an early lead before he was joined at the front by Greece's Spyridon Gianniotis.

The Welshman's pace strung out the field although Gianniotis managed to keep up, with Lurz keeping the pair in his sights.

With 34 minutes of the race gone, the Greek swimmer made a move to try and break away, opening a gap of more than five metres on Davies and the rest of the field only to be reeled in once again as Davies moved back to the front of the pack.

From there, Davies retained his position at the front of the lead pack until the start of the last of the four 2.5 kilometre laps, which saw Lurz and Australia's Ky Hurst increase the pressure.

And van der Weijen's better ability to spot the finish played in his favour - the Dutchman powered clear to win having rarely featured at the front throughout the race.

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