LONDON: Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli held off a late surge from his rivals to win the men's 10km swimming marathon Friday and become the first person to hold Olympic titles in both pool and open water races.

A gold medallist in the 1500m freestyle in Beijing in 2008, Mellouli broke clear at the start of the last lap and clung on in the final stages to hold off Germany's Thomas Lurz and Richard Weinberger of Canada,

Mellouli, who also came third in the 1500m freestyle on Sunday, finished 3.4sec ahead of Lurz in a superb time of 1hr 49min 55.1sec at a sun-soaked Hyde Park.

It represented yet another milestone for the pioneering 28-year-old, who became the first African man to win an Olympic gold swimming medal when he topped the podium in Beijing.