Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe and Toby Robinson competed in a gruelling Men’s 10km event at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships today (Wednesday).
Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe and Toby Robinson competed in a gruelling Men’s 10km event at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships today (Wednesday).
The race itself took place in air temperatures of 36-37 degrees Celsius and a water reading of 28 degrees at the Lupa Beach venue in Budapest, with the athletes having to manage their races accordingly to ensure they were not caught out by the conditions.
In a content with a handful of retirements, Pardoe was keen to get through the race towards the top end of the field, with memories of his withdrawal due to an eye injury at the Tokyo Olympics last year being fresh in his mind.
Both Pardoe and Robinson dug deep in the opening stages, keeping well within the chasing pack up to the halfway mark.
As the race began to develop, the leaders (including the 2019 world champion Florian Wellbrock and 1500m Freestyle world champion Gregorio Paltrinieri) began forming their own pack, with the two Brits beginning to separate into two chasers.
Pardoe remained just off that leading group, and after sitting 15th at the start of the final of six laps, he moved forward well to finish strongly and place 11th.
A time of one hour 53 minutes and 41 seconds (1:53:41) was just under three minutes behind gold medal winner Paltrinieri, with Robinson coming in 21st, a time of 1 hour 55 minutes and 39 seconds to his name at the end of a challenging race.
Twenty-one-year old Pardoe – who moved to train alongside Robinson at Loughborough University following Tokyo 2020 – reflected on the race and the racing conditions, saying: “It was really tough, the water temperature was so difficult to deal with. I know I swam in 30 degree water in Tokyo and it was 28 today, but that felt so much harder than I’ve ever experienced before.”
Commenting on a finish just outside of the top 10 in a race which involved multiple changes of the guard at the top, he was also happy with what is clear progress from previous events.
“This has been a great experience. Eleventh is the highest I’ve ever finished in a World Championships so I’ll take it. I’m a bit disappointed as I’d have liked to get in the top eight, but next year we will come back stronger.”
“Luckily Paris won’t be this hot when we get to it which is good. The 10km is a challenge in itself, the distance and 28 degree water in 38 degree air temperature just makes it 10 times harder. There’s a lot of things to learn from and we move.”