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LEN Award


LEN AwardFor your eyes only! LEN Magazine?s website visitors are the first ones witnessing the LEN Award to be handed over in Eindhoven during the LEN Gala Dinner, 21 March. The first winners, elected by the national federations and members of the media:











Best male swimmer: Filippo Magnini, Italy

After he had sat on the throne of the classical event (100m freestyle) in 2005, he managed to hold his world supremacy winning another gold medal in the Melbourne World Championships and helped Italy to win a silver in the 4x100m relay.



Best female swimmer: Laure Manaudou, France

The best female swimmer of the World Championships, winning in two freestyle events, breaking the World Record on 200m and setting new Championship record in 400m. Moreover, she collected two silver medals in 800m free and 100m back plus a bronze in the 4x100m free relay.


Best male diver: Gleb Galperin, Russia

The only competitor who could outdo the Chinese in the whole diving event, he won the gold on the 10m platform with an outstanding performance with all other titles going the the Chinese.



Best female diver: Yulia Pakhalina, Russia

She was one of the few European competitors who could counterbalance the dominance of the overseas divers and became a medalist at the World Championships.



Best synchro?swimmer: Gemma Mengual, Spain

Though she could not win a gold medal, she is the only synchro swimmer to make it to the podium in all three categories in the World Championships: the solo, the duet and the team event (with the technical events she earned 4 silver and 2 bronze medals).





Best male water polo player: Miho Boskovic, Croatia

He was the best member of the World Champion Croatian national team, while on club level as a player of the Jug Dubrovnik he won the MVP title in the Final Four of the most prestigious competition series, the Euroleague.



Best female water polo player: Blanca Gil Sorli, Spain

She was the top scorer of the World Championships in Melbourne. Her most memorable match was the one against the Americans in the quarter finals, in which Spain were defeated 10:6 by the Americans, though it was Gil who scored all 6 Spanish goals. Besides, as a player of Fiorentina she won the top scorer title in the LEN Trophy Final Round (as a member of the Cup winning team).





Best male open water swimmer: Thomas Lurz, Germany

The German star won the 5 km event at the World Championships in a quite arduous fight, while over the 10 km event he got the silver, the margin between him and the winner was 6 hundredths of a second, the smallest gap ever recorded in a major event.







Best female open water swimmer: Larisa Ilchenko, Russia

It is quite rare that a 19 year old open water swimmer manages to beat her experienced competitors at a world championships, winning two gold medals. Ilchenko was able to achieve this, being the first over the 5 and 10 km event.

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