Open Water events were held at Hazelwood Pondage, Victoria, Aug 21-22. American swimmers won three of the four individual races as well as both team championships.
Klete Keller (USA) came from behind to win the men's 5K over Phillip Brosgarth (AUS) and Carl Gordon (NZL) in a thrilling final kilometre that saw the lead change three times. Keller moved into the lead with 750 metres remaining. Mark Saliba (AUS), in the lead for most of the race, finished fourth.
In the women's 5K Erica Rose (USA) confirmed her world number one ranking. She opened up an early lead and was a comfortable winner, with Sarah Bowd (AUS), a 13-year-old rookie, in second and Dawn Heckman (USA) third.
Mark Saliba (AUS) won the 25K with a fast time of 4 h 57 min, and is the first to clock under five hours on a GPS surveyed 25K course. Chad Hundeby (USA) had the previous fastest time from the 1991 World Championships 25K swim in the Swan River in Perth.
Saliba was 11th at the last World Championships in 1998. "I wanted to take it fast," Saliba said. "That's just what happened, but at around 13K I struck a pretty rough patch and had to dig deep both mentally and physically to come through that."
The women's event went to Briley Bergen (USA). Bergen swam in the lead throughout and was never challenged. Kelly Driffield (AUS) was second at the first lap, but eventually faded out of contention. Regan Stacey (USA) was in second, with Bronwen Whitehead (AUS) swimming a fast final lap to take third.
MEN'S 5K 1 Klete Keller,USA 55.42 min 2 Phillip Brosgarth,AUS 55.50 min 3 Carl Gordon,NZL 55.51 min 4 Mark Saliba,AUS 55.52 min 5 Ky Hurst,AUS 56.20 min 6 Mark Leonard,USA 56.38 min 7 Nazmul Kabir,BAN 1 h 15.08 min 8 Ekius Hossain,BAN 1 h 15.12 min WOMEN'S 5K 1 Erica Rose,USA 58.11 min 2 Sarah Bows,AUS 59.36 min 3 Dawn Heckman,USA 59.39 min 4 Trudee Hutchinson,AUS 59.40 min 5 Bronwen Whitehead,AUS 1 h 01.05 min 6 Anna Cleaver,NZL 1 h 04.55 min 7 Amy Robertson,NZL 1 h 05.42 min MEN'S 25K 1 Mark Saliba,AUS 4 h 57.44 min 2 Danny Chocron,VEN 5 h 00.06 min 3 John Kenny,USA 5 h 07.21 min 4 John Flannigan,USA 5 h 11.03 min 5 Malcolm Can Drempt,AUS 5 h 12.39 min 6 Liam Weseloh,CAN 5 h 13.24 min 7 Stephen Cresswell,AUS 5 h 15.38 min 8 David Chisholm,CAN 5 h 21.30 min 9 Rob Mackay,RSA 5 h 30.06 min 10 Takashi Sugisawa,JPN 5 h 36.51 min WOMEN'S 25K 1 Briley Bergen,USA 5 h 16.05 min 2 Regan Stacey-Schieber,USA 5 h 23.36 min 3 Bronwen Whitehead,AUS 5 h 26.25 min 4 Shelley Clark,AUS 5 h 31.18 min 5 Kelly Driffield,AUS 5 h 34.40 min