Fabian halts U.S. winless streak

Thanks to Eva Fabian, USA Swimming has snapped an 11-year streak.

The 16-year-old Fabian won the women's 5k title at the Open Water World Championships in Roberval, Canada this week, making her the first American to win a world championship in the event since 1998. Fabian and Italian Giorgia Consiglio went out fast in the first half of the race, and the pair eventually finished just 0.10 seconds apart, 1:02:00:99 to 1:02:01.09.

Brazilian Marcela Cunha Ana placed third with a time of 1:02:02.69.

"The start was really fast," Fabian said in a story posted to FINA.org. "I had attempted to make a breakaway a few times but I wasn't able to get away from everyone. I was pretty tired but I made sure I had plenty left for the sprint at the finish."

For Consiglio, it was her second silver medal at the 2010 Worlds; she was runner-up in Saturday's 10k race.

On the men's side, German Thomas Lurz won his sixth consecutive 5k world title after finishing in 57:42.60. Russian Evgeny Drattsev (57:44.10) was second and American Francis Crippen took third in 57:46.50.

But the victory did not come easy for Lurz, who was given a yellow card early in the race after bumping into a fellow swimmer.

Lurz now has nine world championship gold medals in his collection, making him the most successful open-water swimmer in history.

"I didn't really feel good during my first lap today and then sometime during the first lap I was issued a yellow card for contact that the officials thought I had with one of my competitors," Lurz said. "This is something that happens all the time in open water swimming and from the point of the warning I was extremely careful. I knew that I needed to swim off by myself and stay about from the other guys in the race."

The World Championships conclude later Thursday with the 25km races.

Some content provided by: FINA.org.