Swimming Canada – BRISBANE, Australia – Olympic medallist Richard Weinberger and Stephanie Horner were sixth and seventh in their respective 10 kilometre races on Saturday at the Australian Open Water Swimming Championships.

Jordan Wilimovsky of the U.S. took top spot clocking one hour and 59 minutes and 27.55 seconds on the ocean course. Jack Burnell of Britain followed in 1:59:32.36 and Jarrod Poort of Australia was third in 1:59:35.53.

Weinberger, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist , couldn’t sustain a strong start. He led after 2.5 kilometres and finished sixth in 1:59:39.62. Current swells, poor sight lines and a combination of rain and sun made for challenging conditions.

‘’Richard needed to have more patience today,’’ said Canadian coach Stephen Price accompanying the team down under. ‘’He needed to stay in the pack much longer and use his fitness to finish stronger. For his first race of 2016 he got a lot of mistakes out of the way.’’

Weinberger – of Surrey, B.C.,  is based at the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre-Vancouver

In the women’s 10 kilometre, Chelsea Kubecka led Australians to a 1-2 finish in 2:04:29.37. Kareena Lee was second in 2:06:08.98 and Yumi Kida of Japan third in 2:06:12.02.

Horner, a two-time Olympian in the pool from Beaconsfield, Que., was seventh in 2:07:23.21 while Victoria Mock of Victoria was 11^th in 2:15:11.81.

Competition ends Sunday with the men’s and women’s five kilometre.

Full results: http://liveresults.swimming.org.au/SAL/2016OWS/

 

By Louis Daignault for Swimming Canada