Lurz seals Germany open water win

Thomas Lurz knows there will come a time when he has to get on with life after swimming.

Yet the way things are going, he sees no need to trade his swimsuit for a business suit.

The 33-year-old Lurz added another world championship to his stellar open-water career Thursday, leading Germany to victory in the 5-kilometre team event at the world championships.

Career haul

Lurz and teammates Christian Reichert and Isabelle Harle completed two laps around the Barcelona harbour course in 52 minutes, 54.9 seconds. They went out fourth in the staggered start, 4 minutes behind Russia in the leadoff spot, but passed the Russians as well as New Zealand and Italy to touch first, giving Lurz his sixth career gold at worlds.

“I haven’t thought of Rio that much,” Lurz said when asked if he planned to keep swimming through the 2016 Olympics.

“I have to take care what I’m going to do after swimming. We will see what’s going to happen these next few years. But I still feel good. As it stands now, I see no reason to stop. This is a great accomplishment.”

Spyridon Gianniotis, Antonios Fokaidis and Kalliopi Araouzou of Greece took the silver medal in 54:03.3. The bronze went to the Brazilian team of Poliana Okimoto, Allan Do Carmo and Samuel De Bona in 54.03.5.

Gianniotis added to his gold in 10K, while Okimoto became a three-time medallist at this year’s world championships. She won an individual gold in the 10K and a silver in the 5K.

“We went fast,” Gianniotis said.

“We trained a lot for this team event. We had the same coach and it was very good for our training. We swam for our country with all the passion.”

The United States won the inaugural team event at the 2011 worlds in Shanghai, but only managed a sixth-place showing this time, less than a half-second out of a bronze. Teams must use at least one woman, and Hungary went with two females (finishing ninth out of 22 teams).

Lurz won his third medal of this year’s championships and first gold. If he needs any additional motivation for Rio, he has yet to win an Olympic gold, settling for bronze in Beijing and a silver in London.

“It’s great to win a race I’ve never won before,” Lurz said.

“Now this is something I have done in my career. I’m very proud of it.”