Phillip Seidler at FINA/CNSG Marathon

Phillip Seidler of Namibia participated at the second race of the 2019 edition of the FINA /CNSG Marathon Swim World Series which was held in the Seychelles (SEY).

Both the men and women races were held on Sunday May 12 as a total of 81 athletes (38 women, 43 men), representing 19 countries, took the plunge in the warm waters of the West Indian Ocean with an idyllic background.
The largest teams travelled from Australia, China and Hungary. Phillip had the privilege to compete against the world elite’s (Olympians and World champs).
The Men’s 10km event started in the middle of the day when it was peak temperatures, with 30-degree water. The hot weather and sea temperature was surely a factor for all the swimmers making this marathon race a tough challenge. The true courage was about never giving up. Unfortunately, some swimmers couldn’t finish the race, experiencing hypothermia and dehydration, due to the extreme conditions.
The 10 km racecourse was set up with 6 loops (each 1,6 km).
In the men’s race one of the main contenders sitting right at the back of the pack, with Ferry Weertman with his distinctive slow stroke rate looking at ease as he bid his time in the early stages.
In lap four Ferry turned onto his back to see who would take up the pace, while he settled into the pack for a break. Obviously, his mission was to shake up the pack and lose as many swimmers as possible.
A lot of pressure was now on the pack as it stretched out into a long line with more and more swimmers falling off the pace. Going into the final lap with the wind picking up, only eleven swimmers were at the front with a lot of Australian Caps in contention (four would place in the top 10) and Olivier really increased the speed.
Marc-Antoine Olivier of France led the pack on a fast and furious last lap to finish in first place in the men’s 10km open water race.
Olivier clocked a time of 1h56m02s00 and was closely followed by Nicholas Sloman. The Australian finished the second fastest in 1h56m04s10, while Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky closed the podium in 1h56m04s 30.Olympic title holder Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands came 4th in 1h56m04s80.
Our Namibian Phillip Seidler showed an excel-lent performance keeping the pace with the world’s elite for the first 5 laps, only falling off the pace on the last lap.
Seidler made Namibia proud, claiming the 33rd place out of 43 men in a time of 1h58m, only being 02:56 min behind the winner.
Unfortunately, Open Water Swimming is a self-funded sport in Namibia. Due to insufficient funds, Phillip Seidler does not get enough opportunities to participate on an international level to gain valuable experiences with tactics. He was very privileged to compete at the FINA/CNSG Marathon Swim World Series in Seychelles, which was a great preparation for the upcoming 18th FINA World Championship 2019 in South.