Crippen keeps bronze in men's 10K open water race

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ROME (The Associated Press) - By ANDREW DAMPF

Francis Crippen kept his bronze medal in the 10-kilometer open water race at the world championships after USA Swimming won an appeal Thursday.

The Italian team protested that Crippen should have been disqualified for swimming outside the ropes guiding contestants to the finish. FINA accepted Italy's protest after the race Wednesday but allowed the Americans to appeal.

Thomas Lurz of Germany won the race, with Andrew Gemmell of the United States finishing second. Italian swimmer Valero Cleri remained fourth.

"The last 20 hours have been extremely frustrating, but we were able to get through it," Crippen said. "I was just really nervous, because it was so out of our hands. And that's just so different to the way swimming is. I always feel like you can control it with your performance.

"I swam one of the best races in my career yesterday."

While there is nothing in the rules requiring swimmers to stay within the buoys at the finish, Italy argued that organizers made a pre-race announcement telling swimmers to stay between the ropes.

"They never made that announcement. They said they were directional only and that's what I told my team," U.S. diving head coach Paul Asmuth said.

Crippen said he didn't voluntarily go outside the rope, but he was swimming side by side with Lurz when he came upon the buoy. He put his head down and hit the buoy head on, swimming under it and popping up on the other side of the diagonal lane line.

"I was pretty much going as fast as I could, and then all of a sudden I hit the buoy head on," said Crippen, who was swimming at his first worlds. "I was on the left side of the lane line, so I just took a couple of strokes, dove under the lane line and swam as fast as I could to the finish."

"They protested, but really all I did was hurt myself," he added. "I had a chance to win the race and I settled for a bronze medal."

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