Thursday's men's 10-kilometer marathon is likely to be a final showdown between Russia's Vladimir Dyatchin and Germany's Thomas Lurz, the two men who have been dominating the open water swimming over the past five years.

Dyatchin will start as one of the top favorites after winning two consecutive world championship golds in the 10-kilometer distance in 2007 and 2008. He also won four of the 2007 World Cup events, finishing in second place on three other occasions.

Lurz, who has never fallen out of the top three in the men's open water events over the years, also has his share of success over the 10-kilometer distance. He won gold at the 2004 and 2006 world championships as well as a World Cup victory in Dubai earlier this year.

Lurz's preferred event has typically been the 5-kilometer discipline, which he has won at the past four world championships. Since 10-kilometer swimming was made an Olympic event, the German swimmer has switched his focus to the event.

The biggest threat to Dyatchin and Lurz may come from Britain's inexperienced marathon swimmer David Davies. Davies has already competed in the 1,500m event at Beijing 2008, where he finished sixth.

Competing in his first open water world championships earlier this year, Davies was the surprise silver medalist, beating the more fancied Lurz and finishing only 0.3 seconds behind gold medalist Dyatchin.

Another Russian Evgeny Drattsev is also a strong medal contender after taking bronze at the 2006 and 2007 world championships, and finishing fifth in 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)