Russia wins its 12th gold at Beijing Olympics

Larisa Ilchenko of Russia has won the gold medal in the women's 10-kilometer marathon swim, an event making its Olympic debut.

Photo: Russia wins its 12th gold at Beijing Olympics

Ilchenko sprinted from behind in the closing meters and finished the grueling 6.2-mile race in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 27.7 seconds, Wednesday morning in the shallow, calm water at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Keri-Anne Payne of Britain took the silver in 1:59.40.7. Her teammate, Cassandra Patten, earned the bronze in 1:59.42.3.

Natalie du Toit of South Africa, an amputee who removed her carbon-fiber prosthetic left leg before diving in, finished 16th.

The Russian synchronized swimming duet of Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova has repeated as Olympic champions.

Performing a perfect free routine to the classic Peer Gynt Suite at the Water Cube on Wednesday, Davydova and Ermakova won with a combined 99.251 points. The pair received all 10's - out of 10 - for technical merit.

Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes of Spain took the silver medal with 98.334 points and Saho Harada and Emiko Suzuki of Japan earned the bronze with 97.167.

The final results were determined by the sum of the free routine final score and the technical routine score from Monday's preliminary.

The Russian synchro duo has thus brought the 12th gold medal for Russia at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.