Water like hot soup and 3.45am alarms: just another day for the marathon swimmers

Ana Marcela Cunha won gold for Brazil in the 10km swim but every swimmer had to give it their all just to get around the course

Before she swam 10 kilometres in under two hours in hot-as-soup Tokyo Bay, USA's Haley Anderson had another time in mind: 3.45am.

That was when her clock buzzed, early, so early, on Wednesday morning. Two hours and forty-five minutes later she dived into the open water aiming for her second Olympic medal in marathon swimming. That was not fun, to set that alarm," she said.