NCAC's Twichell Wins World Championship In Open Water Swimming

LAKE BALATON, HUNGARY – Ashley Twichell, who competes for Tar Heel head swimming coach Rich DeSelm and his staff at the North Carolina Aquatic Club, claimed the first gold for the United States of America at the 2017 FINA World Championships in the women's five-kilometer Open Water race Wednesday morning, clocking a time of 59 minutes and seven seconds to top the field by over three seconds. This comes a day after Jordan Wilimovsky's silver medal performance in the men's 10-kilometer, the U.S.'s first open water medal of the competition.

Twichell, a native of New York, is a Duke alumna who lives in Apex, N.C. and trains for DeSelm and his corps of UNC assistants including Duncan Sherrard, Sean Quinn and Christy Garth at NCAC. She has enjoyed tremendous open water success recently and also competed in the women's 10-kilometer event this past Sunday where she finished 10^th after a strong race in which she occupied one of the top three spots for much of the distance.

"Ashley had a great 10-kilometer race earlier this week but definitely was not satisfied," says Coach DeSelm. "She has great focus both in training and on race day and she brought her best out today in the five-kilometer. She swam a flawless race, rounded the buoys extremely well, timed her last push to take the lead and finished a world champion, bringing home a gold medal for Team USA."

Twichell was equally thrilled with her performance. Specifically on her finish she said, "Having drafted for the first bit, I felt like I had something left. I didn't feel like I used up everything, so that last straightaway I tried to bring in the legs, which I typically don't use. I really didn't know how far behind me anyone was, so I didn't want to look back and waste any time. I just tried to put my head down as much as I could and go as hard as I could those last 240 meters."

After the mass pack stayed together for the first bit of the race, some separation began to occur about halfway through, as a group of 12 swimmers got away from the others. Twichell then moved into the lead with 1000 meters to go and never looked back. In the end, there were four swimmers well ahead at the finish, with the next pack of seven over a minute clear of everyone else.

Twichell picks up her third Open Water World Championship medal, but her first in the last six years. In 2011, she won gold in the Team Event along with a bronze in the 5k. She had shown great form recently, winning silver in the 800 free at the SC World Championships and then dominating the 10k at U.S. Nationals, winning by nearly a minute. She finished 10th in that event on Sunday.

Twichel was especially excited about bouncing back from the 10K and reaching her goal of finishing on the podium. "I didn't feel awesome during the 10K, so I took the two days in between to really try to recover and get my mind back straight," Twichell said. "I medaled in 2011 and didn't medal in 2015, so definitely the goal here was to get on the podium. I'm really excited to get on the podium for the United States."

France continued their very impressive showing in Lake Balaton, winning yet another medal as 10k World Champion Aurelie Muller pulled off the silver in 59:10.5 over Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha (59:11.4).

Muller now has a gold and a silver, and her countryman Marc-Antoine Olivier has a gold and a bronze in the men's 5 and 10k events, making France the only nation to medal in all four open water races thus far.

Cunha picks up her second bronze after finishing in the same position in the 10k. These performances have been remarkable given she had her spleen removed shortly after Rio and had to take some serious time off training. She also won bronze in this event four years ago in Barcelona.
2016 10k Olympic gold medalist Sharon van Rouwendaal narrowly missed a medal in 4th, registering a time of 59:11.5. This is a better showing than her performance in the 10k, where she fell off towards the end and finished 16th. That makes back-to-back 4th place finishers for her in this event.

15 seconds back for 5th was American Haley Anderson, the two-time defending World Champion. Anderson moves up one spot from her 6th place finish in the 10k. Italian Giulia Gabbrielleschi of Italy was two tenths back for 6th, and South Africa's Michelle Weber and Australia's Kiah Melverton tied for 7th in indentical times of 59:27.5.

The silver and bronze medalists from 2015, Kalliopi Araouzou of Greece and Finnia Wunram of Germany, placed 9th and 11th overall respectively.

Women's 5k Results

Ashley Twichell, USA, 59:07.0
Aurelie Muller, FRA, 59:10.5
Ana Marcela Cunha, BRA, 59:11.4
Sharon van Rouwendaal, NED, 59:11.5
Haley Anderson, USA, 59:26.2
Giulia Gabbrielleschi, ITA, 59:26.4
(T-7) Michelle Weber, RSA, 59:27.5
(T-7) Kiah Melverton, AUS, 59:27.5
Kalliopi Araouzou, GRE, 59:28.0
Kareena Lee, AUS, 59:28.9

Notes from U.S. Swimming
Women's Open Water 5K – Final (Lake Balaton, Hungary)

Results – Full Results
Gold: Ashley Twichell (Fayetteville, N.Y./North Carolina Aquatic Club), 59:07.0
Silver: Aurelie Muller (FRA), 59:10.5
Bronze: Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA), 59:11.4
5. Haley Anderson (Granite Bay, Calif./Trojan Swim Club), 59:26.2

Notes
• With today's victory Twichell becomes the first American woman to win three FINA World Championships medals in open water swimming. She won bronze in the 5K and gold in the team event in 2011.
• The United States has won 10 all-time medals in the FINA World Championships women's 5K, more than any other open water event. Team USA has won three straight gold medals in the women's 5K dating to 2013 and four of the last five gold medals dating to 2010.
• Twichell and Anderson took to the front of the lead pack quickly in this race. Anderson held an early lead, before Muller pulled in front for much of the race. Twichell made a move past Muller with about 700 meters to go and never relinquished the lead.
• Anderson was sixth and Twichell finished 10^th in the women's 10K on July 16.

NCAC's Twichell Wins World Championship In Open Water Swimming

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