French Win Third Open Water Gold In Mixed 5k

2017 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – OPEN WATER

• July 15 – July 21
• Lake Balaton, Hungary
• Meet Central
• Full Schedule
• Mixed 5k Results

France continued their impressive open water showing on day 7 in Lake Balaton, winning gold in the mixed 5km event. The event features four swimmers, two men and two women, each swimming approximately 1.25k in a relay format. This is the first time at the World Championships they’ve done this format, as it used to be two men and one women per team.

The French team included Aurelie Muller and Marc-Antoine Olivier, both of whom now have two gold and three medals total at these championships. They were led-off by Oceane Cassignol in 14:28.20, putting them in 11th place overall but 2nd among teams who started off with a woman.

Logan Fontaine then moved them into 4th, and Muller brought them into 2nd behind only Great Britain with Olivier to anchor. The British had their males go 2nd and 3rd, so they held a 37-second advantage heading to the final leg but it was no problem for Olivier. He stormed home with the second fastest anchor leg to win gold for the French with a final time of 54:05.90. They’ve now won five medals in five open water events with the 25km races still to come.

The Americans, anchored by Jordan Wilimovsky, won silver just over 12 seconds back in 54:18.10. Wilimovsky (12:05) was about three seconds faster than Olivier (12:08) on the final leg. He was joined by Brendan Casey, Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson.

The Italians, opting to go two women first, were 13th out of 19 teams at the halfway mark. However, Federico Vanelli moved them up ten spots on the 3rd leg, and Mario Sanzullo was passed by Wilimovsky but did overtake the British to hang on for bronze in a time of 54:31.00. The two men were joined by Rachele Bruni and Giulia Gabbrielleschi.

The Aussie team, featuring pool swimmers Kiah Melverton and Jack McLoughlin, took 4th, and the British wound up 5th. The Germans, who won the 2015 title in the different format, finished 8th.

Mixed 5km Open Water Results

1. France (Cassignol, Fontaine, Muller, Olivier), 54:05.90
2. United States (Casey, Twichell, Anderson, Wilimovsky), 54:18.10
3. Italy (Bruni, Gabbrielleschi, Vanelli, Sanzullo), 54:31.00
4. Australia (Lee, Brazier, Melverton, McLoughlin), 54:42.90
5. Great Britain (Huskisson, Robinson, Shuttleworth, Dearing), 54:51.10
6. Brazil (Do Carmo, Jungblut, Cunha, Ponte), 55:19.60
7. Hungary (Juhasz, Rasovszky, Novoszath, Gyurta), 55:23.70
8. Germany (Wunram, Beck, Meissner, Muffels), 55:41.80
9. Japan (Miyamoto, Hirai, Moriyama, Niikura), 55:54.00
10. Russia (Bolshakov, Kulik, Abrosimov, Novikova), 55:55.10

Full results here.