GHappy and relieved, Lea Boy stood on the beach of Lupa Lake and, after her brilliant performance over 25 kilometers, was astonishingly happy about her silver medal at the end of the swimming world championships. “Luckily it was enough in the end. It could have been fourth place, but I was able to get everything out of it again, which was possible in the end,” said the 22-year-old.
In a gripping four-point sprint with a photo finish on Thursday, after 5:24:15.00 hours in the heat of Budapest, Boy was only beaten by two tenths of a second to the Brazilian world champion Ana Marcela Cunha. Bronze went to Sharon van Rouwendaal from the Netherlands.
After gold in the open water relay, it was Boy’s second medal at the World Championships in Hungary. “Of course, that gives hope for Paris 2024,” she said with a view to the Olympic Games. “When you’re at the front, the others look at you, there’s more pressure. But it’s fun. Racing like that just rewards all the training I’ve had.” Boy has established himself in the open water. Last year she became European Champion over the longest distance – also in Lupa Lake.
37 degrees outside temperature, around 28 degrees in the water, swimming for almost five and a half hours: none of that bothered Boy so much. Shortly after the race, she strolled out of the finish area and was laughing. “It was warm, but not too hot,” she said, revealing her simple recipe for the long race: “It’s best not to think at all, just swim.”
Together with the second German starter, Elea Linka, Boy swam at the front right from the start. “The first 15 kilometers were very slow. It wasn’t that tiring. Then no one wanted to go forward, everyone was back in one heap. Of course that’s a bit stupid,” she said and added with a smile: “But I solved it quite well in the end.” Linka was sixth at her first World Championships. There were only 15 women at the start, 13 of whom nailed it.
The Italian Dario Verani had previously won the men’s race after 5:02:21.50 hours. With an energetic final spurt, he prevented the title hat-trick of Frenchman Axel Reymond, who became world champion in 2017 and 2019. Third was the Hungarian Peter Galicz. Germany’s Andreas Waschburger and Ben Langner finished 11th and 13th.
For the German open water team it was the fifth medal after two gold medals and one silver and one bronze. Previously, Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock and Co. had won silver three times and bronze once in the Duna Arena pool.
