VeryFerryFast Weertman Passes Poort In A Storm For Dramatic Double Dutch Gold

The end of the Olympic marathon was like the wild west today in Rio. The Dutch had reason to celebrate after a the best twitter handle in swimming, VeryFerryFast, past a Poort in a storm on the way to a dramatic finish.

That fast ferry was Ferry Weertman, who  joined Sharon van Rouwendaal as champions of the marathon but few others had cause to celebrate the messiest finish to years of efforts you will find anywhere in world sport. World-class swimmers. Certainly not a world-class event.

Spiros Gianniotis, of Greece, and Weertman, of The Netherlands, came home in that order. Jack Burnell, of Britain, was third. Seconds later, the scoreboard rolled and Weertman was given gold ahead of Giannotis with a slower time. Then the times were levelled as Burnell found himself in a three-way tie for bronze with Marc-Antoine Oliver, of France, and China’s Zu Lijun. Photo-finish appeared by the names of all three.

Half a minute later and the decision rolled again: Weertman, gold, Giannotis silver in the same time (1hour 52:59.8), Olivier bronze, with Zu locked out in the same time (1:53:02.0) and Burnell down to the bottom of the heap with the lettes DSQ next to his name.

Swimmers must hit a pad over their heads as they finish marathon races so that the transponder they are wearing stops the clock. Giannotis had to return to the gate and register a second time, costing him gold. If that was hard to take for the Greek challenger whose mother hails from Liverpool, for Burnell “four years of hard slog have been washed down the drain”.

“We ‘ve got the best guys in the world out here,” he added. “We’ve trained for four years, put a lot alot of hard work into this. This is the pinnacle of our sport, the Olympic Games and its ruined by a couple of judges who want to stick their noses in just because they want something to do. They want to be seen to be doing something. Just let the guys race. There were red cards left, right and centre out there.” (more on all that below).

The Courage Of Jarred Poort

Coach Ron McKeon with Jarrod Poort [Photo: Swimming Australia]

The race would not be over for another 7.5km but at the helm of the first of four circuits of the course in off Copacabana beach was the greatest gauntlet ever thrown in Olympic marathon racing since the 10km event began in 2008. Australia’s Jarrod Poort roared ahead in 28:41.7, just shy of a minute – a veritable ocean – ahead of the following shoal.

Next through was defending champion Oussama Mellouli, the US-based Tunisian who backed up 1500m freestyle gold at the Watercube at Beijing 2008 with victory in The Serpentine in London. At 29:39.3mins Mellouli was the pace-setter for Mark Papp (HUN), Erwin Maldonando (VEN) and Federico Vanelli (ITA) with a four-second gap to the lead of the next pod, Britain’s Jack Burnell.

Surely they would close the gap by half-way. Poort had other ideas. At 56mins 58.3 he had taken the fight to the waves, taken the risk. It was not certain that this woruld pay off but no doubting the clarity of his statement, the magnitude of his commanding lead. When Marc-Antione Olivier (FRA) was next through the full-lap buoy, the clock read 58:14.6 – 1min 16.3 back from Poort. Stunning.

So far ahead was the Australian that the rest of the shoal, with Burnell on 58:15.8 and 1:17.5 adrift the lead pace, Evgeny Drattcev (RUS), Mellouli (1.19.6 back from Poort) and Vanelli, might not have realisded that Poort was so far gone; perhaps they hadn’t even realised he was ahead of them, impossible for them see him at 120m back. It would be down to coaches at the feeding stations to raise a red flag on Poort’s pace.

How much Poort was fading, how much the pack was gaining was hard to tell but clearly word had got round: heads popped up and the chase was on. Could the rest pick it up enough to dock alongside Poort by the close of battle?

After three of four circuits, Poort was on 1hr 25:15.0 and whatever happened next he was surely up for a bravery …

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