SEVILLE, Spain - Russia's Vladimir Dyatchin edged out Britain's David Davies by 0.3 seconds to take the gold in the 10km race in the Open Water World Championships on Sunday.
There was disappointment for Australian world 1,500 metres freestyle record holder Grant Hackett who was disqualified and so will miss out on the event in the Olympic Games.
Dyatchin clocked one hour 53 minutes 21 seconds for the course which runs along the city's River Guadalquivir. Germany's Thomas Lurz took the bronze medal ahead of Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands.
Open water swimming is renowned for its combative and aggressive nature, with competitors knocking into each other as they fight for position around the marker buoys and at the feeding stations.
Hackett, who is bidding to become the first male swimmer to win in the same event at three successive Olympics in the 1,500, had also hoped to challenge for gold in the Open Water event which is being held for the first time in Beijing in August.
Fellow countryman Ky Hurst, an ironman triathlete who lost to Hackett in the Australian national championships in December last year, qualified for the Olympics after finishing joint fifth with Russia's Evgeny Drattsev.
