World top open water swimmer Petar Stoychev from Bulgaria outplayed several competitors and the strong wind in Beijing on Sunday to win the gold and a spot in the 10km event at Beijing Olympics.

The 31-year-old didn't declare himself until the last lap, finishing the four-lap race in one hour 59 minutes and 13.8 seconds in the lumpy water due to the strong wind.

"The wind did influence the competition. It made me swim slower," said the prolific open water swimmer who became the fastest ever to swim across English Channel in less than seven hours last year.

Hungarian Gercsak Csaba grabbed the silver medal 3.9 seconds behind and Rostislav Vitek from the Czech Republic took the third place in 1:59: 35.5.

The 19-year-old Gercsak said he was fond of the sunshine on Sunday while Vitek, 31, said he appreciated the waves because "I love swimming in the sea".

The three medallists together with seven swimmers out of a 30 participants qualified for the men's race at Olympic marathon swimming, which is going to make debut at Beijing Olympics this August.

Russian big fish Vladimir Dyatchin had led a squad of 14 to enter the Olympic Games through efforts at the World Open Water Swimming Championships one month ago and China earned an automatic qualifying berth as the host nation.

In the women's roster, American teenager Chloe Sutton and the other 10 swimmers had put their names on the list of 25 through the last Olympic qualifying tournament kicked off on Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agencies June 1, 2008)