Unlucky 13th in brilliant effort by Jury in world open water swim

Rookie Alannah Jury produced a remarkable comeback to finish an unlucky 13th in the FINA World Championships 10km open water swim near Rome yesterday.

Jury, 18 from North Shore, recovered from last place at the end of the first lap after her goggles were ripped off by another opponent in a rough and physical four-lap race.

Her coach Philip Rush said Jury’s performance to finish 13th was outstanding with the time lost in the process of recovering and getting new goggles costing her a top-10 finish.

Jury, who only took up open water swimming last year, has competed in only a handful of races and never in competitive international competition until these world championships in Ostia.

Her goggles worked loose early on the first of four laps in today’s 10km race before they were ripped off by an opponent.

“It was clear that one of the other swimmers took advantage and ripped them off. It was a very rough race with big packs in tight bunches not giving an inch,” Rush said.

“A number of yellow flags were issued as warnings against over-physical swimming. Alannah had to swim over to me at the feed stop and get some more goggles. She missed getting any food in her but pushed on.”

The rough nature of the swim saw some swimmers withdraw including yesterday’s 5km winner, Larisa Ilchenko (RUS).

Jury caught the back of the 45-strong field at the end of the second lap, consolidated on the third lap and pushed hard on the final lap, forcing through on the inside to eventually finish 13th in 2:02.01, only 24 seconds from the winner, Great Britain’s Keri-Anne Payne.

“I have no doubt if it was not for that incident she would have finished as high as seventh. It was a champion performance, an absolutely outstanding effort,” said Rush.

Jury, who went into the event ranked 30th, finished as the leading Oceania swimmer and the second highest placed world championship rookie.

Rush is in no doubt about Jury’s potential.

“I am quietly confident about her future. She now needs to get experience back home swimming in packs in the open water, so we will look at some surf lifesaving races.

 “And she needs to get out and compete on the World Cup circuit. If she can continue to work hard, then I believe she can be competitive come the London 2012 Olympics.”

Payne, the Beijing Olympic silver medallist, was in the lead pack throughout, pushing into the lead 400m from the finish and holding off the late challenge from Russia’s Ekatarina Seliverstova and Italy’s Martina Grimaldi who was prominent throughout.

The focus for the New Zealand team now moves to the pool with the kiwi squad completing the camp at Teramo tomorrow before moving to Rome on Friday with the first day of competition on Sunday (local time).

Results, Women’s 10km Open Water Swim: Keri-Anne Payne (GBR) 2:01.37.1, 1; Ekatarina Seliverstova (RSU) 2:01.38.0, 2; Martina Grimaldi (ITA) 2:01.38.6, 3. Alannah Jury (NZL) 2:02.01.0, 13.