23 Jul 2009

Photo finish in women's 5km open water

8:36 am on 23 July 2009

There's been a dramatic photo-finish victory in the women's five-kilometre open water race at the Rome world championships.

Australia's Melissa Gorman beat multiple world champion Larisa Ilchenko after the Russian missed touching the finish with her final stroke and had to settle for silver.

Officials took several minutes reviewing television footage before Gorman, who had led for most of the ocean race, was declared the winner.

In the men's 5km race, Germany's Thomas Lurz surged to a fifth successive world championship victory after fighting off the challenge of Greece's Spyridon Gianniotis in a time of 56 minutes, 27 seconds.