Dutchman Maarten van der Meijden made a surprising last minute sprint at the men's open water race on Thursday, snatching the inaugural Olympic gold of 10-kilometer marathon swimming from Briton David Davies.

Davies, who had led the race during the most part of the two-hour grueling race, seemed to have secured his win before van der Meijden overtook him with an incredible sprint in the last 100 meters.

German swimmer Thomas Lurz won bronze.

Top favorite, three-time world champion, Russia's Vladimir Dyatchin received a red flag at the last lap and was disqualified from the race.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)