When Keri-Anne Payne and Cassandra Patten swam to silver and bronze for Britain a touch behind Russian Larisa Ilchenko in the marathon at Shunyi rowing lake yesterday their efforts were historic, both in terms of distance and gender. But the race was not as “inaugural” as Olympic organisers would have everyone believe.

in Paris 108 years ago to the week, Channel swimmers came in from the cold for their Olympic long-distance debut with 19 men taking the plunge into the River Seine in heats. After the semi-finals there were seven of them in a final over four kilometres downstream from Pateaux to Asnieres - and the winner was British.

John Jarvis, a Leicester house painter, had a big advantage over his competitors: lard. As one of his contemporaries put it in the official Olympic report into the race: “He has fat all over, which literally hangs in parts. His breasts fall like a woman’s but he has powerful shoulders and tremendous thighs.”

There was no sign of lard among the 25 women who powered up and down what amounted to a giant swimming pool yesterday (it was even slightly chlorinated). Payne, 20, and Patten, 21, served as pace-setters from the first 50 metres, passing the five-kilometre halfway point at a speed less than a minute slower than the time in which Jarvis claimed the Olympic title in 1900 over a kilometre less.

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The 2008 race changed hands for the first time with just 700 metres remaining, when Ilchenko, whose fingertips had tormented the toes of the British pair throughout the four laps, did what she has done to the best open swimmers in the world since she was 16. Having coasted in the drag of a front-swimmer, she sprinted to claim gold.

“People think ten-kilometre racing’s about ten kilometres. Its not,” said Sean Kelly, coach to Patten and Payne at Stockport, where the Grand Central Pools has now placed a swimmer on the Olympic podium at three of the past four Games, after Graeme Smith in 1996 and Stephen Parry in 2004. “It’s about the ability to swim fast for ten kilometres, and quite a few can do that, but then sprint to the line in the last 400 metres. We should have won, but the girls did a fantastic job.”

The reward went beyond the medals. Stockport has been chosen as one of five Intensive Training Centres (ITC) that will receive special support in readiness for London 2012, along with Loughborough, Bath, Stirling and Swansea. “I’m really happy,”Kelly said. “I think we deserved it. We’ve been under the radar for as while because we’ve had our eye on the big one [Olympics] and not the smaller events on the way. “

Whereas Patten, the first swimmer to qualify for the Olympics finals in both pool and open water, warmed up with eighth place in the 800 metres final won by her team-mate Rebecca Adlington - the first British swimmer to win more than one gold since Henry Taylor in London 1908 - Payne raced in the semi-final of the 200 metres medley and the heats of the 400 metres medley and was miffed that Kelly had not rested her fully. “She had the much bigger medal chance here,” the coach said. “I think she might thank me now.”

Payne toyed with her silver as though she were handling a priceless gem. “I can’t describe how it feels, because swimming has been part of my life for 16 years," she said. "In that time I have thought of constantly about competing in the Olympics and winning a medal. To do both is amazing.

"So much can go wrong in such a long race. With 1,000 metres to go I felt like I had a good chance of at least getting a medal. I’m happy to have the silver. I’ll probably have a cry later on when it’s sunk in and I’ve spoke to my parents.” Payne's mother and father, Jim and Patricia, had been watching back home in Oldham.

Patten dedicated her bronze medal to sister Lucy, who turned 19 yesterday, and burst into tears the moment she saw her sibling with her mother and father, Zandra and Tony, lakeside. She then summed up just how hard it is to cover ten kilometres. “Every part of your body is hurting," she said. "Your stomach is the size of a pea, because all the blood rushes to your arms, your body is saying stop but your head is saying come on, keep going.

"The last kilometre felt like 20 kilometres. Every time I looked up, the finish seemed no closer. During the final stages, we could hear all our team-mates cheering us on, which was fantastic. It was great to have them there.”