BRITAIN'S David Davies took silver in the 10-kilometre open water marathon behind Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden after the 23-year-old dominated for most of the race on Wednesday morning.
Davies put in a blistering burst of pace in the final 500 metres of the race in an attempt of burn off the rest of the field, but he just lost out in the final 100 metres of van der Weijden, who timed his move to perfection to finish in one hour 51 m
inutes 51.6 seconds.
Davies' silver medal completes a fine performance in the open water event for Great Britain, coming just 24 hours after Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten had won silver and bronze respectively in the women's race.
Former world champion Thomas Lurz was third as Davies, who was 1.5 seconds behind the winner, did enough to hold him off in the final push for the line.
With rain falling constantly, the conditions were perfect for open water swimming as the temperature dropped from the women's race the previous day.
Davies took the lead from the start, trying to establish an early lead before he was joined at the front by Greece's Spyridon Gianniotis.
The Welshman's pace strung out the field although Gianniotis managed to keep up, with Lurz keeping the pair in his sights.
With 34 minutes of the race gone, the Greek swimmer made a move to try and break away, opening a gap of more than five metres on Davies and the rest of the field only to be reeled in once again as Davies moved back to the front of the pack.
From there, Davies retained his position at the front of the lead pack until the start of the last of the four 2.5 kilometre laps, which saw Lurz and Australia's Ky Hurst increase the pressure.
Lurz moved through to the front at the beginning of the back straight and Russia's Dyatchin, the world champion, followed closely on this tail.
Davies remained close to the front, however, as the jockeying for position going into the final straight began in earnest.
Gianniotis and Italian Valerio Cleri surged towards the front as they approached the penultimate turn but Davies kicked again as the pace rose further.
Davies launched his attack just after the turn and looked to have the race sewn up, only for van der Weijden to bridge the gap, helping to haul Lurz back onto the British swimmer's feet.
Van der Weijen's better ability to spot the finish played in his favour and the Dutchman powered clear to win having rarely featured at the front throughout the race.
The full article contains 450 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
