Burnell takes gold in Hungary, Payne bronze

Jack Burnell continued his winning spree at the weekend, winning the fifth stage of the 10km FINA/HOSA World Cup in Lake Balaton in Hungary. 

Burnell also took gold in the fourth stage of the competition in Cozumel last month, and bronze in Abu Dhabi. Burnell finished in a blistering time of 1:41:41.93, Spyridon Gianniotis (Greece) was second in 1:41:44.51 and Simone Ruffini (Italy) third in 1:41:46.35. Burnell was part of the leading pack from the start. He made his break on the third of four laps and sprinted for the finish to take a three second lead over 2011 and 2013 world champion Gianniotis. Great Britain’s Caleb Hughes was also with the leading pack until the final 200m of the race, when his goggles and hat were pulled off and he dropped back to finish in 17th place. Tom Allen finished in 22nd place and Dan Fogg was 29th.

The women’s event was an even closer race, with only two seconds between the first four swimmers. Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha touched first in 1:50:36.68, Éva Risztov (Hungary) was second in 1:50:37.69 and Great Britain’s Keri-anne Payne took bronze in 1:50:38.87. Payne had to swim hard to break from sixth place on the final lap to take a podium finish. Great Britain’s Danielle Huskisson finished in 12th place in 1:50:54.56.
58 men and 21 women competed in Hungary. The series now moves to Setubal in Portugal for the next race on 27 June.