Pardoe and Robinson deliver strong marathon swims in Paris

[Article images courtesy of Team GB]

A bright sunny morning in the French capital provided pleasant conditions for the Men’s 10km Marathon Swimming event on Friday morning, with Team GB represented by Hector Pardoe and Toby Robinson.

Having watched teammate Leah Crisp compete 24 hours earlier, Pardoe and Robinson had their turn to negotiate the six-lap course running on a segment of the river Seine between the iconic Pont Alexandre III and Pont de L’Alama bridges.

The opening lap saw athletes jostle for their position in the pack, with a flying opening 800m heading downstream contrasting greatly to the challenging return up the river with competitors trying to be astute in how best to combat the current.

Going past the feeding station for the first time, Pardoe and Robinson were close together in 14th and 19th respectively. However, in a tactical move entering the second lap, Pardoe made an effort to pick his way up the field and settle within a group of around ten athletes that started to put some clear water on the rest of the field by the 3km mark.

Robinson continued to put in the work as a key cog in the chasing pack but as the race developed was unable to reattach to the leading group as ultimately he brought home his race in 1:56:43 for 14th overall on the Olympics stage.

Meanwhile, having experienced the disappointment of withdrawing during the race three years ago in Tokyo with an eye injury, Pardoe continued to grind out his laps on the tailcoats of the leaders up until the 9km mark – eventually slapping the timing board just under a minute behind the new Olympic champion, Kristof Rasovszky (HUN), to claim a sixth placed finish at his second Games.

“I’m not sure what the initial emotions on it right now are, it’s one I’ll dwell on and see how I feel,” said Pardoe.

“Sixth place. I thought there was a medal there but it’s certainly an improvement on Tokyo. I feel like we swam for almost two hours into a treadmill.

“It was a good race and I think such an amazing experience to race an iconic course. My partner is French so I’ll probably be coming to Paris quite a lot in the rest of my life and every time I walk past here I’ll remember this swim.”

On the impact of Olympic Marathon Swimming in the Seine, Pardoe added:

“I think this is going to be Paris 2024’s legacy - it’s amazing that they’ve managed to clean this up with all the races going ahead and I think it sets a really good precedence for the rest of the European Nations to clean up the rivers, and hopefully we can follow in the UK.”

Reflecting on his maiden Games experience, Robinson commented:

“Yeah it was a very tough race, I mean it was a great experience because this is such an iconic venue – no open water race has been like this in the past and I feel like we’re making history as a sport right now by swimming in this river.

“I was a little bit disappointed with my result, I would of liked to have got top ten but I’m 14th today so I can go home and reflect on that, but it was a great experience just to be in there.”

On the conditions racing in the Seine, Robinson continued:

“Going one way you felt like superman and then as soon as you turn round those buoys at the end it’s almost like you’ve put on a parachute. You’re swimming into a very strong current and that made for such a brutal race. Unfortunately that caused the race to get away from me in the first lap and I was sort of fighting ever since that happened to make it one of the hardest races I’ve ever done.

“I think it’s a great thing putting water quality in the news. Paris has done a great thing in cleaning up this water and this shows why sport is such a good thing for driving positive change.”

While the Olympic Games begin to draw to a close, the aquatics action continues right to the final day with Team GB represented in artistic swimming and diving. You can find details of all the upcoming action from Paris 2024 through our What’s On? Page.

Where can I watch?

The BBC will be covering the majority of the Games across BBC One and Two, the BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer. You can find their coverage schedule by clicking here.

Discovery+/Eurosport will also be broadcasting every minute of the Olympic Games but these channels require a subscription fee.