By Hannah Blackwell
Hector Pardoe earned a top six finish in the men’s open water swimming in Paris, but was unable to make the Olympic podium.
The Welsh athlete – who won bronze at the World Championships last year – finished sixth in the marathon which was won by Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary.
Perfformiad anhygoel!💦
Hector Pardoe moves up through the field and slaps the timing board in sixth place ✋🌊
Da iawn, Hector! #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/RiVnrwMTxq
— Swim Wales (@SwimWales) August 9, 2024
6th a fantastic effort @hector_pardoe
👏👏👏👏👏👏#Olympics #Olympics2024Paris— 🇺🇦 Dr Cathy mostly 🏊♀️ (@cathy_paget) August 9, 2024
Pardoe – who was forced out of the 10km race at the Tokyo Games after being struck in the eye by another swimmer – finished the race strongly after being down in 14th place at the halfway stage.
Almost a minute down on the leaders, Pardoe claimed sixth in a photo finish with home favourite Marc-Antoine Olivier.
When your French other half's family have their British and Welsh flags up for you in Paris ❤️ @hector_pardoe#BBCOlympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/42gRsmxI5I
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) August 9, 2024
Rasovszky, who was second in Tokyo three years ago, won in a time of one hour 50 minutes 52 seconds, just 2.1 seconds ahead of Germany’s Oliver Klemet while Hungary’s David Betlehem took bronze.
It was the last race of the Paris Olympics to take place in the Seine, which had been a major talking point before and during the Games over the water quality of the river.
Pardoe said: “There was a lot of negativity about the Seine before the Olympics. At least they have tried; they have spent £1.2 billion on this clean-up project so bravo to them for doing it.
“I think this is going to be Paris 2024’s legacy. It is amazing they have been able to clean it up and all the races have gone ahead, both triathlons, mixed relay and both the open water races.
“It sets a really good precedent for the rest of European nations to clean up the rivers and hopefully we can follow it in the UK because we have got a massive way to go to even get close to what France have done here.”
Pardoe admitted he would have to take precautionary antibiotics after his sixth-place finish in his race, which featured six laps of the Seine against a stunning backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
Several familiarisation training sessions were cancelled and the men’s triathlon pushed back by a day, with heavy rain at the start of the Games thought to raise the levels of harmful E.coli bacteria.
The triathlon mixed relay went ahead on Monday without the Belgian team, who withdrew after athlete Claire Michel fell ill having competed in the women’s race, finishing 38th, the previous Wednesday.
But Pardoe said: “You don’t really taste E.coli or whatever. I’m not a connoisseur for that. It was all right. The water quality felt fine.”
Hector Pardoe’s Training Plan Scrapped After More Pollution In River Seine