2000 World Open Water Swimming Championships – Women's 25 km

The Women's 25 km Open Water event at the 2000 World Open Water Swimming Championships was held on November 4, 2000 in Honolulu.

Edith van Dijk captured her second gold medal of the week at the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships with a decisive victory in the 25K event. The Europeans continued their domination of this week's events in Honolulu by also winning the silver and bronze medals, Viola Valli from Italy and Angela Maurer from Germany.

For more than four hours a pack of ten swimmers were within four body lengths of each other, often swimming in single file. The three Europeans were together for almost every minute of the five and one half hour race. Van Dijk said "the swim to Diamond Head was the most difficult part of the race taking into account the wind, current and the waves." Asked about her strategy van Dijk said, "I tried to get away from the others a couple of times but I could not succeed, I was unable to get a gap between me and the others, but I was pleased to finish first at the end today."

Viola Valli arrived to a cheering crowd of well wishers on the shores of Waikiki Beach. Her fan club included many teammates, friends and family who crowded around her when she sat down on the beach to rest after second medal of the week, having earned bronze in the 5K. Painted on her leg was her name and her well-wishers told onlookers that Viola means flower in Italian. "We made it a success for each of us today because we made it together." Angela Maurer recovered with a bronze medal performance in the 25K. She finished third in the 10K event but was disqualified for missing a channel marker.

Sid Cassidy from the USA, assistant referee and member of the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee said about the weeks events, "The races got better as it went on. Without any question this was the greatest marathon field ever assembled." Cassidy added, "It was thrilling to see this level of performance from these outstanding athletes; it is a great step for our sport."

Results

Rank	Swimmer	Nationality	Time	Points
	Edith van Dijk	Netherlands	5:30:04.07	18
	Viola Valli	Italy	5:30:06.06	16
	Angela Maurer	Germany	5:30:08.06	14
4	Natalya Pankina	Russia	5:31:25.25	12
5	Valeria Casprini	Italy	5:32:01.82	10
6	Regan Scheiber	USA	5:32:11.15	8
7	Britta Kamrau	Germany	5:33:13.91	6
8	Olga Guseva	Russia	5:33:53.62	5
9	Audry Boitte	France	5:38:42.88	4
10	Briley Bergen	USA	5:52:01.82	3
11	Shelley Clark	Australia	5:58:36.06	2
12	Melissa Irwin	Australia	6:07:28.28	1
13	Celeste Punet	Argentina	6:06:52.15
14	Eszter Balázs	Hungary	6:07:55.28
15	Maxime Mentha	Canada	6:19:51.00
15	Nadia Bolduc	Canada	6:39:28.50
--	Pilar Geijo	Argentina	DNS
--	Etta van der Weijden	Netherlands	DNF

Key: DNS - Did not start, DNF - Did not finish

See also

• Open water swimming at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 25 km

References

• FINA