City of Perth Swimming Club's Open Water Iron Man Rhys Mainstone has finished an astonishing 6th place in the World Open Water Swimming Championships 5km Event only a day after being dragged from the water with hypothermia during the 10km marathon earlier in the week. The cold waters of Roberval, Canada proved no match second-time round for Mainstone who started well only to lose touch with the leaders at the first buoy with a technical difficulty (faulty goggles). Within a second Mainstone found himself off the back of the main pack and fighting to hold on to 25th place. Mainstone then displayed a courageous and energy-sapping effort to claw his way back through the pack and back into contention, a task that took all but the final few metres of the 5km race. With the pace hotting up over the final kilometre, led by the undeniable king of marathon swimming Germany's Thomas Lurz (six straight world title wins) Mainstone joined the action and held his own to finish a commendable 6th place, only 9 seconds off the GOLD medal spot of Lurz. Rhys will later today begin his 36hr journey back to Perth, touching down on Friday night before commencing his preparations ahead of the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships to be held in Irvine California in August. Below is an exert from the race results page at SwimmingWorld.com On the men's side, Germany's Thomas Lurz took a different route to his victory in the 5K with a 57:42.63 in the end. The victory is Lurz's sixth straight world title in the 5K event. He hung out with the lead pack the entire way, splitting a 29:22.212 at the 2.5K mark, before winning the sprint to the finish. Russia's Evgeny Drattsev finished second overall with a 57:44.15, while Fran Crippen of the U.S. rounded out the podium with a third-place 57:46.48. Spain's Diego Nogueira Montera attempted to duplicate Fabian's strategy with an all-out sprint as he led at the halfway mark with a 29:17.42 split, but paid for the efforts by fading to 13th in 58:01.11. Crippen remained with Nogueira Montera through the initial stages of the race with a 29:19.771 midway split.