King of the waves Thomas Lurz (GER) is in danger of being weighed down by his honours: in the 5km world title race at Jinshan City Beach today he was hailed as one of the all-time greats today after claiming the fifth global crown of his career, four of them in the 5km.

Lurz left his bid for the title to the last moment, overhauling Spyros Gianniotis, the Greek rival who beat him for the 10km title on Wednesday, in the final metres of the bout. 

Coached by his brother Stefan, the champion said: "I was sure that I won only when I touched the finish board, the slap board. Then I already knew that I won. But before the race I didn't think about winning five times or six times or seven times in a row. I think this is big pressure. Every time I go on the start, I try to do my best and don't think about the number of titles." 

Gianniotis made the mistake of thinking he had the crown in the bag, he admitted. "The last few hundred metres, I was in the lead and I knew Thomas was behind. He began to fight back, and I just pushed ahead, thinking I was ahead and I had nothing or no one to lose. It's very, very hard." 

The bronze went to Russian Evgeny Drattsev, who declared Lurz, now the 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 champion, an all-time great of the sport: "Lurz is a very strong swimmer. He is a great athlete in history." 

In the women's event, Switzerland's Swann Oberson made history when she got the better of France's Aurelie Muller, American Ashley Twichell taking bronze. Oberson is the first gold medal winner from Switzerland in FINA history across all five aquatic disciplines.

"I know that being in the lead is not very good in open water, and I was very good in the last 1,000 metres," said Oberson. "So I just tried to stay in the top 10 over the whole race." A woman who trains five hours a day she described the swimming pool as "my second house".

The results:

5km men 

• 1. Thomas Lurz (GER) 56min 16.6sec
• 2. Spyros Gianniotis (GRE) 56:17.4
• 3. Evgeny Drattsev (RUS) 56:18.5
• 4. Nicola Bolzonello (ITA) 56:24.3
• 5. Andrew Gemmell (USA) 56:24.8
• 6. Sergey Bolshakov (RUS) 56:26.0
• 7. Damien Cattin-Vidal (FRA) 56:27.4
• 8. Chris Bryan (IRL) 56:28.0
• 9. Simone Ruffini (ITA) 56:29.0
• 10. Csaba Gercsak (HUN) 56:30.1
• 11. Sean Ryan (USA) 56:30.1
• 12. Yasunari Hirai (JPN) 56:30.6

5km women

• 1. Swann Oberson (SUI) 1hr 0min 39.7 sec
• 2. Aurelie Muller (FRA) 1:00:40.1
• 3. Ashley Twichell (USA) 1:00:40.2
• 4. Rachele Bruni (ITA) 1:00:42.2
• 5. Ekaterina Seliverstova (RUS) 1:00:44.1
• 6. Ophelie Aspord (FRA) 1:00:44.9
• 7. Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) 1:00:46.7
• 8. Danielle de Francesco (AUS) 1:00:46.8
• 9. Cara Baker (NZL) 1:00:47.3
• 10. Jana Pechanova (CZE) 1:00:47.4
• 11. Poliana Okimoto (BRA) 1:00:48.3
• 12. Eva Fabian (USA) 1:00:50.00

The open water events conclude tomorrow with the men's 25km final.

Russia's iron grip: Natalia Ishchenko collected her fifth gold of the world championships today, winning the duet free with Svetlana Romashina. In fact, the only gold she has not won in the synchro pool is the one from an event she bypassed, the team technical. A sixth golden chance comes in the team freestyle (not the 4x100m, the other one, with sequins and smiles) tomorrow. The 25-year-old now has 15 world championship golds to add to her team gold from the Beijing 2008 Games. "The secret of our achievement is that we train for many hours, and our country's team is always the best," Ishchenko said. The Russians today notched up 98.410 points ahead of silver for China's Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen, on 96.810, and bronze for Spain's Ona Carbonell and Andrea Fuentes, on 96.500.