NEWS

Video replay determines winners of FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup round six

The winners of both the men’s and women’s races in the sixth round the FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup could only be announced after a video replay of the finish.

In the women’s race, Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil was judged to have out-touched Arianna Bridi of Italy. Both were given the same time of 1:37:29.20. The battle for bronze was equally tight, with both Viviane Jungblut of Brazil and Esme Vermeulen of the Netherlands hitting the board exactly 1.60 seconds later. The Brazilian was awarded the medal.

“The competitions in the recent years became more and more close, I was ready for that. My coach told me to swim as fast as I can in the last 200 metres. Although it was a rainy day I like the water and temperature cold, the colder the better to be honest,” said Cunha.

Britain’s Jazz Carlin (see interview in our November issue), in her first international open water race, finished 11th, among a group of five swimmers who lost about a minute on the leaders.

A similar scenario played out in the men’s race between Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary and Allan Do Carmo of Brazil finishing on 1:31:52.40, with gold being awarded to Rasovszky. Fernando Ponte, also of Brazil, finished third, 2.5 seconds behind with Olympic and World Champion Ferry Weertman in fourth a further 2 seconds back. Britain’s Tobias Patrick Robinson was in ninth place, just 5 seconds behind the winner.

“It was a very good but hard race. I was really happy with my result. I tried to be at the first position in the first three laps and tried to beat Do Carmo at the end. In fact, I was always bad at the finish because of the bad position at the last 300, 400m. But today I was at the good position and won it. I like Qiandao Lake very much for the water and good temperature,” said Rasovszky

The 10km swim took place in Chun’an Qiandao Lake on Sunday 15 October. A total of 79 swimmers representing 19 countries took part.

Image: Ana Marcela Cunha, © FINA

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I created Outdoor Swimmer in 2011 (initially as H2Open Magazine) as an outlet for my passion for swimming outdoors. I've been a swimmer and outdoor swimmer for as long as I remember. Swimming has made a huge difference to my life and I want to share its joys and benefits with as many people as possible. I am also the author of Swim Wild & Free: A Practical Guide to Swimming Outdoors 365 a Year and I provide one-to-one support to swimmers through Swim Mentoring.