FINA, the international governing body for swimming, kicked off its open water season with two races in Argentina. On 4 February, 19 men and 19 women took to the water in Patagones- Viedma for round 1 of the 2017 FINA/ HOSA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup. The 10k swim took place in challenging conditions with swimmers having to deal with wind, rain and cool conditions.
In the women’s race, Italy’s Arianna Bridi took the lead with 2.5km to go and held on to win by a significant margin in 2:11:30.42. Second place was tightly contested with Italy’s Rachele Bruni and Brazil’s Poliana Okimoto bearing down on the finish line shoulder to shoulder. The two had been in this position last summer at the Rio Olympics where they were promoted to the podium after Aurelie Muller from France was disqualified for impeding Bruni. Back then, Bruni was able to hold on for silver. This time, they were judged to finish together, in a time of 2:12:13.54.
The Italians grabbed the top two places in the men’s race too. Federico Vanelli made his move at the half way point and claimed gold in 1:57:02.42, a margin of nearly 30 seconds over his compatriot Simone Ruffini. In an unusually splintered field, France’s David Aubry claimed the bronze medal almost another minute further back.