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Open water swimmers battle jellyfish

Australia's Kate Brookes-Peterson applies ice to a jellyfish sting after finishing the women's 10km ocean swim at St. Kilda Beach at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday. Brookes-Peterson finished third. PHOTO: AP

US swimmer Chloe Sutton emerged from the water a trembling, teary mess, wondering what happened to her goggles. Germany's Angela Maurer buried her head in a coach's chest, knowing what it must have felt like to go 12 rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime.

And everyone was covered in ugly, red welts, the work of jellyfish lurking off Australia's St. Kilda Beach.

All in all, it was just another day of open water swimming.

Russia's Larisa Ilchenko claimed her second gold medal of the world championships yesterday, winning a sprint to the finish with British up-and-comer Cassandra Patten in the 10km race.

Then again, no one really looked like a winner when it was over. They staggered onto dry land, just glad to have survived cool waters, rough tactics and all those nasty creatures lurking beneath the surface of Port Phillip Bay.

"They were big," said Ilchenko, who defended her 10k world championship after winning a fourth consecutive 5k title on Sunday.

"I could hear girls screaming on the first lap when they got stung," she said.

Athletes dive at the start of the women's 10km open water event at the World Aquatic Championships at St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

The pain was worth it if a medal was waiting at the finish line, but Maurer missed out on the bronze by just 1.2 seconds after a race that lasted more than two hours.

"My whole body is just burning," the German said after seeking solace from her coach. "There were so many jellyfish out there."

Sutton, a 15-year-old Californian, got a rough introduction to her first world championships.

She had her goggles knocked off at the first feeding station, forcing her to hang on to a buoy until a worker on a jet ski brought out another pair.

Sutton lost valuable time, spent most of the race swimming by herself and finished in 28th place. She was crying when she finally made it to the beach, covered in jellyfish stings.

"I tried to catch back up, but I just couldn't do it," she said.

Ilchenko and Patten were swimming stroke-for-stroke as they rounded the last buoy, but the Russian nudged ahead in the final 100m. She finished with a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 57.9 seconds.

Patten was about a body length behind, crossing in 2:03:58.9. Australia's Kate Brookes-Peterson took the bronze in 2:03:59.5.

"I didn't have any strategy," Ilchenko said through a translator. "I was so tired. I was just thinking about finishing the race."

Every swimmer felt the wrath of the jellyfish, which showed up during training but were really out in force for the race.

"It sounds weird, but it actually broke up the swimming a little bit," Patten said, managing a grin as she looked at the marks all over her body. "You're going, `Ohhh, I've been stung. Ohhh, I've been stung again.'"

No worries, as they say in these parts.

"At least they're weren't any sharks," Patten said. "I would be more scared of sharks."

The 10km swim took on added significance because it will be part of the swimming program in Beijing, where an open water event makes its Olympic debut next year.

"It has become more important, especially in the coaches' eyes," Patten said. "They see it's an Olympic event, so they're pushing their swimmers into open water more than they did before."

Brookes-Peterson picked up her second bronze of the meet -- she also finished third in the 5km -- despite being up most of the previous night with food poisoning or a stomach bug.

"I just put it all behind me," she said. "This sets me up great for Beijing."

But Maurer was bitter about the aggressive tactics of some swimmers.

"Everyone was just beating each other up," Maurer said. "I have never experienced such a race before. It was horrible."

A power failure delayed the morning session for about 20 minutes, the second in two days at the complex. Preliminaries in the women's 10m diving competition were scheduled for yesterday evening, assuming the lights stayed on.

It was another good day for the Russians.

In addition to Ilchenko's second gold, the country kept up its dominance of synchronized swimming, scoring 99.000 points to qualify first for the team free preliminaries final on Saturday.

The Russians already have two synchronized golds in two events at Melbourne -- Natalia Ischenko in the new solo technical event and in the team free combination.

Russia was heavily favored to win another gold last night in the technical duet after world and Olympic champions Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova led the preliminaries.
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