NEWS

Silver for Burnell, but French dominate in Abu Dhabi

France scored a double win in Abu Dhabi at the weekend, with Marc Antoine Olivier and Aurélie Muller dominating the second leg of the FINA/HOSA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup.

In the men’s race Olivier took gold in 1h47m39s6, more than seven seconds faster than Great Britain’s Jack Burnell, who led a chasing pack to take silver from Italy’s Simone Ruffini (bronze in 1h47m47s0).

In the women’s event Muller’s lead was even more formidable: her time of 1h58m05s0 was almost 15 seconds ahead of Brazilians Poliana Okimoto and Ana Marcela Cunha (1h58m19s8 and 1h58m19s9 respectively). Great Britain’s Keri-anne Payne just failed to podium, finishing fourth in 1:58:20.30.

Eight of the top ten finishers in the 2015 World Championships in Kazan in both the men’s and women’s races competed in Abu Dhabi. The competitive field also included 2015 World Cup series winner Christian Reichert, who is yet to qualify for Rio. Reichert finished in sixth place. Fellow 2015 World Cup series winner Rachele Bruni finished fifth. Eighty-one swimmers competed in the men’s race and 49 in the women’s race. The third leg of the World Cup takes place in Balatonfured (Hungary) on 18 June.

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Jonathan is a year-round skins swimmer with a particular love of very cold water. He has competed in ice swimming competitions around the world. He is a qualified open water coach with a particular love of introducing new swimmers to the open water.