Jack Burnell
Jack Burnell

More misery for Jack Burnell as he finishes fourth in world championships


Jack Burnell was unable to put his Olympic disqualification behind him as he finished fourth in the 10-kilometres open water event at the World Championships in Budapest on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old was furious at the end of the Olympic event at Copacabana Beach in Rio last August, believing he had been impeded when sprinting for a medal. 

Instead he was disqualified.

And Burnell's bid to make amends in Lake Balaton finished 2.3 seconds from gold and 1.6secs of the podium. Holland's Ferry Weertman added the world title to the Olympic gold medal he won in Rio, winning in one hour 51 minutes 58.50secs.

Jordan Wilimovsky of the United States was second, 0.10secs behind, and Marc-Antoine Olivier of France third, 0.70secs adrift.

Burnell finished in 1hr 52mins 00.80secs, while team-mate Caleb Hughes, who also trains in Loughborough, was 24th.

"I'm gutted," Burnell said."We gave it everything this year - we put absolutely everything into it.

"It's so hard to find words when you've just finished fourth at a world championships. It's hard to draw positives at this stage. Obviously we wanted a medal at least but it didn't happen today. I couldn't have given any more but I wasn't the best man on the day unfortunately.

"I couldn't have asked for a better race in terms of how I swam it and where I was placed around the course. I felt really good throughout the race.

"Coming into the finish I felt strong and those boys went at the same pace I did. Maybe I should have made a move a little earlier but those are things we will look at when we go back to the drawing board." 

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