Dutch duo takes 10km titles

GLASGOW: Ferry Weertman won the men’s European Championships open water 10-km title after the most dramatic of photo finishes in Loch Lomond on Thursday to complete a Dutch double after Sharon van Rouwendaal won the women’s race.

Olympic champion Weertman had looked beaten coming into the final 100 metre sprint to the line but produced a remarkable last-gasp surge to touch the finishing board fractionally ahead of the long-time leader, Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky.

Women’s champion Van Rouwendaal also had her own dramas after forgetting her swimming costume, having to swim naked beneath her wetsuit and then having an awkward conversation with a steward.

After their exhausting slog, Weertman and Rasovszky were given the same time of one hour 49 minutes 28.2 seconds.

It was so close that it took several minutes before the judges confirmed the 26-year-old Dutchman had touched first.

Rasovszky admitted he made an error in reaching out for the board, allowing

the more experienced Weertman to touch fractionally ahead.

The Dutchman, no stranger to winning the closest of finishes as his Olympic triumph at Copacabana demonstrated, gave the crestfallen 21-year-old a consoling hug.

Earlier, Olympic champion Van Rouwendaal completed the double which had narrowly eluded the men’s 5km winner Rasovszky when she added the blue riband 10 km title to the 5km gold she had won 24 hours earlier.