Keri-Anne Payne finished seventh in the women’s 10km Olympic marathon swim

Keri-Anne Payne finished seventh in the women’s 10km Olympic marathon swim

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Heywood swimmer Keri-Anne Payne finished seventh in the women’s 10km Olympic marathon swim event on Monday (15 August).

The race took place off the coast of the Copacabana beach as Keri-Anne finished with a time of 1:57:23, just under a minute behind the 1:56:32 winning-time achieved by the Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal.

Speaking after the race, Keri-Anne said: “A bit sore but proud of what I have accomplished today! Three Olympic Games in a 10k marathon swimming event.

“Thank you so much for all the support. You've all helped me fall back in love with this crazy, challenging and amazing sport.”

Keri-Anne, 28, originally finished eighth in the event, but a controversial scrap on the finish line led to the disqualification of French swimmer Aurelie Muller, who had finished second.

Winner Van Rouwendaal was instead followed by Italian Rachele Bruni in second and Brazilian Poliana Okimoto in third on the podium.

China’s Xin Xin, the United States’ Haley Anderson and German Isabelle Harle were the three other swimmers who finished ahead of Keri-Anne.

Keri-Anne, who was born in Johannesburg but brought up in Heywood, won silver in the swimming marathon event at the 2008 Beijing games but narrowly missed out in London four years ago, finishing fourth in the same event.