Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands won the men’s marathon swimming event off Rio’s Copacabana Beach yesterday in a race so close that he did not realise he had won until a friend called from home to give him the good news.

After the gruelling 10km open-water swim, the 24-year-old Weertman touched the electronic pads at the finish line just before veteran swimmer Spiros Gianniotis of Greece, giving the Dutchman his first gold medal in his first Olympics.

The official results showed the first two swimmers with the same time of 1:52:59.8. Marc-Antoine Oli-vier of France, 20, finished 2.2 seconds behind to win the bronze medal.

Gianniotis appeared to finish ahead of Weertman, but he said his arm was in a position that he could not get to the pad first.

It was the last race for the 36-year-old Greek who retires after five Olympics as a pool and open water competitor.

For Weertman, current European champion in the distance, it was not luck.

He had been training hard on the touch pads for the last few weeks, but he did not expect to be struggling with a pack of six other racers at the finish line.