University of Victoria Vikes swimmer #Richard Weinberger# won the test event for the men's 10-km open water race in London, England, at the site of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games at the Serpentine in Hyde Park on Saturday.

Weinberger, about to enter his sophomore year at UVic, beat out eight of the Top 10 swimmers from the recent world championships in Shanghai, China, and served notice that he will be a contender and a favourite to advance to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games at the final qualifying event in Portugal next summer.

The native of Surrey, B.C., won the event "which puts him into the fight for an Olympic medal" according to Vikes swimming head coach #Peter Vizsolyi#. 

This is Weinberger's first international gold medal. He finished with a winning time of one hour, 50 minutes and 49.8 seconds (1:50.49.8).

“The plan was to go hard and finish hard,” Weinberger, 21, told Swimming Canada. “The conditions were perfect for me.”

“Today, I managed to beat experience with experience. My coach (Ron Jacks) and I reviewed our race strategy from what we learned in Shanghai, and on the last few laps, I managed to pull away and take the lead. From there, all I could think of was hang in there, and get your hand on the wall.”

"It's pretty exciting to beat (Spyros) Giannianos and (Thomas) Lurtz, respectively the gold and silver medallists from this years world championships," Vizsolyi added.

Weinberger won the race in a field of 20 that was selected from the Top 30 eligible finishers from the recent FINA World Aquatic Championship held in July in Shanghai.  Of the invited, the race included eight of the Top 10 swimmers, those who pre-qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics by virtue of their Top 10 finishes at the FINA worlds ,including the Top 6 ranked open water swimmers in the world.

Lurtz of Germany finished in second place (1:51.16.0) while Gianniotis of Greece was third (1:51.16.1).

Weinberger, who trains in Victoria and favours the cold water, is expected to arrive back in Canada on Sunday. He qualified for Saturday's six-lap event in London, England, after finishing in 17th spot at the FINA World Aquatic Championships in July.

The social sciences student will have to wait until next year to secure his spot on Canada's Olympic Team, but says this victory puts him in the right frame of mind as he gets back into training in September.

“I'm very motivated to train and make a spot at the qualifier in Portugal next year," he said. "I've got a busy eight months ahead with a few World Cups in South America to look forward to.”

Warm weather training will also be in the mix with a scheduled trip to Australia where Weinberger will get to swim aside some of his competitors.

Full Results
1. Richard Weinberger (CAN) - 1:50.49.8
2. Thomas Lurz (GER) - 1:51.16.0
3. Spyros Gianniotis (GRE) - 1:51.16.1
4. Luca Ferretti (ITA) - 1:51.18.8
5. Andreas Waschburger (GER) - 1:51.32.6
6. Csaba Gercsak (HUN) - 1:51.43.7
7. Alex Meyer (USA) - 1:52.19.5
8. Ky Hurst (AUS) - 1:52.20.1
9. Chris Bryan (IRL) - 1:52.24.5
10. Yurly Kudinov (KAZ) - 1:52.29.0
11. Antonis Fokaidis (GRE) - 1:53.16.1
12. Zibin Zhang (CHN) - 1:53.21.1
13. Julien Sauvage (FRA) - 1:57.17.5
14. Arsenly Lavrentyev (POR) - 1:58.23.5
15. Tin Yu Ling (HKG) - 2:07.45.8
16. Marcus Yat Ho Yuen (HKG) - 2:08.17.0
DNF (Did not finish): Samuel deBona (BRA) and Francisco Jose Hervas Jodar (ESP)
DNS (Did not swim): Sergey Bolshakov (RUS)

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