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| Author | Topic: Rio 2007 - Day 2 - Sutton and Crippen win gold at Pan Ams |
| Ikarus-360 |
posted 7/14/07 9:34 PM
RIO DE JANEIRO – Chloe Sutton (Roseville, Calif.) and Fran Crippen (Philadelphia, Pa.) took home Team USA’s first two gold medals at the Pan American Games today with wins in the men’s and women’s 10K open water competition at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Chip Peterson (Chapel Hill, NC) finished second in the men’s race to win silver and Kalyn Keller (Phoenix, Ariz.) finished fourth in the women’s race. Sutton led the women’s field during the first part of the race, but battled with Brazilian Poliana Okimoto throughout the final leg. Sutton beat Okimoto to the finish to win gold at 2 hours, 13 minutes and 47.6 seconds. Okimoto finished eight tenths behind at 2:13:48.4 for the silver and Canada’s Tanya Hunks won bronze at 2:13:50.5. Team USA’s Kalyn Keller finished fourth at 2:14:20.9. “After World Championships this year I thought I wouldn’t compete in open water again,” Sutton said. “But I did well at other meets and I gained more experience which brought my confidence back. It’s the best thing that could have happened.” Crippen and Peterson swam together throughout the entire race, but Crippen pulled ahead on the final sprint to the finish to win gold. Crippen finished in 2 hours, 2 minutes and 24.1 seconds and Peterson finished at 2:02:29.2. Brazilian Allan Carmo took home the bronze at 2:03:53.7. “It’s a great start to the Games,” Crippen said. “It was a great crowd and all in all a great venue. The water was choppy but we expected that. We came and trained here so we had an idea of what it would be like.” Today’s 10K open water competition marked the event’s first-ever appearance in the Pan American Games. The open water 10K event will make its first Olympic appearance at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. More updates of the competitions soon… http://panamerican.pa.funpic.org/ My Pan American Games Blog |
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