With the pressure off from the 10km, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands won the open water double on Wednesday morning at the Old Doha Port in Qatar by taking the 5km gold medal in the final sprint over Australia’s Chelsea Gubecka. It was van Rouwendaal’s tenth career medal at the World Championships at age 30, and her first in the 5km.

“I did not expect to win another gold because I was so focused on the 10K and I felt very tired mentally after the 10K,” van Rouwendaal said. “The body was quite good – the arms just had some problems and some issues with my hip and my leg in the last days. So I was like: Let´s see when I am in the water. And when I was in the water, I was surprised I was in the front. I told myself: Let´s just try something. And I took the risk and it has paid off.”

Van Rouwendaal came in at 57:33.9 with Gubecka claiming the silver at 57:35.0. Gubecka did not race the 10km on Saturday, having already solidified the Olympic qualification spot at last year’s World Championships in Fukuoka. This was her third career medal at the World Championships at age 25.

“It means so much and I feel like I am getting better with age,” Gubecka said. “I am learning so much about the sport even still. I just enjoy the journey. It gets hard, it is a little bit more physical but I love this stuff, I love the wind chop and Qatar managed a really good championship and I am just grateful to be here.

“In the competition, I was focused on who is around me; I wanted to make sure that I know where exactly I am. I have my coach here with me so I am grateful she was able to come here with me and my whole family is watching at home. The viewership is picking up and I am looking forward to the following years. Now, I am just going to continue the great work ahead of the Olympic Games.”

Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha won the bronze at 57:36.8 as this is her 16th career medal at the World Championships at age 31.

“This race was very tough,” Cunha said. “Sometimes, I say that in the open water, it is a bigger fight than among the water polo players. In water polo, you have the rules, you have penalties, and you have fouls. But here, you have a yellow and red card but you cannot see anything under the water. I think I have very cold blood. Normally, the people from Latin America get more temperament, but for me, it was not that important to fight for the gold medal but to finish with any medal so I swam a little bit more tactically and in the finish, I managed to finish with a medal in third place.”

The Race

The water was much calmer today both metaphorically and physically this morning as the water conditions at the 10km on Saturday were less choppy than they were on Saturday when Olympic qualifications were on the line. On Wednesday morning, the water temperature was reported to be at 19.2 degrees Celsius with the air at 20 degrees.

Gubecka, who did not swim the 10km on Saturday to rest for this and the relay, led the race early. The 25-year-old has been around the scene for years, having first swum at the World Championships in 2013 as a 15-year-old, but didn’t win her first major medal until last year in Fukuoka.

Van Rouwendaal set the pace on the first lap, showing no ill effects of the emotions of the 10km, leading the field through 1600 meters ahead of Gubecka, American Katie Grimes, and Portugal’s Angelica Andre, all of whom have won medals in the 10km at the World Championships.

Grimes started to breach the lead about 21 minutes into the race but van Rouwendaal would not budge. Grimes started to separate lines from van Rouwendaal, forming her own pack on the second of three laps, and taking the lead at around 2100 meters. Grimes led the likes of Italy’s Giulia Gabbrielleschi and van Rouwendaal on lap two.

Van Rouwendaal grabbed the lead back and led the field into the final lap over Gubecka with Grimes and Spain’s Maria de Valdes, who won a medal in the 10km on Saturday.

Gubecka pulled even with van Rouwendaal around 3400 meters, but the Dutchwoman wouldn’t let the Aussie get too comfortable. Gubecka turned on the tempo on the last lap and tried to breakaway from the field as the likes of Grimes and Valdes went with her. It looked to be almost a repeat of the 10km race from Saturday when Valdes won the silver medal.

With about 1000 meters to go, it looked like a runaway gold for Gubecka as she led Valdes with van Rouwendaal and Grimes leading the chase pack a few seconds back.

But as they approached the final turn buoy, the two veterans in the field - van Rouwendaal and Brazil’s Cunha showed why they are considered two of the best open water swimmers of all-time. Cunha formed her own line parallel to the likes of Gubecka and van Rouwendaal, and as the three convened into the final chute, van Rouwendaal turned on the jets to win the gold medal with Gubecka winning the silver and Cunha winning the bronze.

USA’s Grimes (57:38.4), France’s Oceane Cassignol (57:38.9), and Spain’s de Valdes (57:39.5) finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the lead pack.

Italy’s Gabbrielleschi faded to seventh (57:47.6), ahead of France’s Caroline Jouisse (57:51.5), Brazil’s Viviane Jungblut (57:52.9) and Portugal’s Andre (57:54.1).

Defending champion Leonie Beck of Germany was hardly a factor in the race, finishing 14th overall at 57:56.6.

Van Rouwendaal has built up a resume as one of the best open water swimmers of all-time and is not slowing down anytime soon heading into her fourth Olympics this summer.

“Power and self-confidence were the key factors,” van Rouwendaal said. “I stayed focused and I wanted to win it so bad, I had nothing to lose. I already won the 10 so… This medal still matters a lot. They say that it is only the Olympics that count but for me, it is not. To win here, it is good for my career and let's see what happens at the Olympics. But nobody will take away my gold medals.”

Gubecka has been competing at the Worlds since 2013, and won her third career medal with the silver in the 5km.

“I am grateful to be here – this is my seventh World championship so I feel like I am getting old at this point but I absolutely love what I am doing,” Gubecka said. “It was really tough today and I am actually very happy with this result. Sharon had a fantastic finish there and for those, who have qualified already, we had it as a stepping stone towards the Olympics and to continue with a medal winning performance is unbelievable.”

Cunha won her 16th career medal at the World Aquatics Championships, dating all the way back to Shanghai 2011 when she was just 19.

“I love water and I love swimming so it was important to stay in the front at the 5K and I am very glad for my performance,” Cunha said. “I took the bronze, of course, it was great, and the most important thing is that we qualified for the Olympics with my team.”