Sharon van Rouwendaal displayed all her speed, stamina and versatility to claim an emphatic victory in the 10km open water swimming event staged against the picturesque backdrop of Copacabana beach on Monday (14 August).

The 22-year-old Dutchwoman, who won silver in the 400m in the pool at last year's world championships, showed that she is a class performer for all conditions and distances as she took control of the race on the third of four 2.5km laps and relentlessly powered away from her pursuers to win in one hour, 56 minutes and 32.1 seconds.

Van Rouwendaal had a huge 17.4 seconds gap over the rest of the field as orange-clad Dutch fans celebrated on the beach, but there was a thrilling and dramatic three-way battle for the silver medal behind her which ended with French world champion Aurélie Muller being disqualified after just beating Italian rival Rachele Bruni to the finishing board touch by a fraction of a second.

Disqualification means bronze for Brazil

Judges ruled that Muller had pushed Bruni's arm down to stop her touching the board at the end. It meant that Bruni was awarded the silver and, much to the delight of the home crowd, Poliana Okimoto of Brazil was moved up to the bronze medal position.

The battle for the silver between Muller and Bruni was reminiscent of their extraordinary duel at this summer’s European championships, when they ended up in a dead heat for gold.

This time, though, they were both soundly defeated by Van Rouwendaal, who was untouchable as soon as she put in a spurt at around the 6km mark. A sprint for over 200m left the others trailing and on the last lap, her stamina and speed combined to push her well clear.

Van Rouwendaal also took part in the 400m and 800m freestyle events (Photo: Getty Images/Clive Rose)

Hungarian Eva Risztov, the defending champion, decided to impose herself from the start and was the early pacesetter but eventually faded to finish 13th.

Ana Marcela Cunha had been the big host nation hope, but she could only trail home in 10th. Her 33-year-old teammate Okimoto exorcised the wretched memory of her performance at London 2012 when she ended up suffering from hypothermia to become the first Brazilian to win a medal in the discipline.

Brazil's Poliana Okimoto on her way to third place (Photo: Rio 2016/Gabriel Heusi)