By Chia Han Keong

IMAGINE swimming nonstop for more than two hours in choppy, open waters.

This lung-bursting act awaits the 16 participants of the Singapore leg of the Fina 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup at the East Coast Park tomorrow.

Russia's Larisa Ilchenko, who will take part in tomorrow's race, won the women's gold in 1hr 59min 27.7sec, overtaking four swimmers in a late spurt.

When asked about that triumph yesterday, the 19-year-old grinned and said in halting English: "After the race, I felt so happy, because it was a very difficult race.

"The water was hot, the weather was very warm. Furthermore, the other 24 participants were top-class swimmers.

"I remember there were two Britons and two Brazilians in front of me, but I just made one last burst. I really can't recall the final 300m where I overtook them, I was just so focused."

Indeed, the Volgograd-born woman has become one of the world's top long-distance swimmers, winning eight World Championship golds since her debut in 2004.

She arrived in Singapore hot on the heels of another triumph - the Shantou leg of this year's eight-leg Fina World Cup series.

When asked why she is so good at such a physically-demanding event, she shrugged and said: "I really don't know.

"I started in the 5km category, and became five-time world champion. So I kept going, and I kept winning. So it's all good."

Tomorrow's race will be her last for this year, and she intends to mark her prolific year with another win.

She said: "The weather's perfect these few days, but the water's a little murky. But I'm looking forward to the race."

Besides the World Cup race, which has a prize purse of US$20,000 (S$28,700), about 700 local swimmers will be taking part in the Singapore Open Water Swim tomorrow, held as part of WaterFest Singapore.

They will compete in four distances: The 500m, 1km, 3km and 5km.

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