Hungary’s Kristof Rasovsky has sealed his 2nd-straight LEN European Open Water Swimming Cup title on the men’s time, while Veronica Santoni has claimed her first (and Italy’s 3rd in 5 years) on the women’s side.
The 21-year old Rasovsky ascended to the throne of crown-prince of European open water swimming (with Ferry Weertman still sitting as king) via 2 gold medals (5k/25k) and 1 silver (10k) at the 2018 European Championships. Those were his first major senior international medals after placing 35th in the pool 1500 free at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Rasovsky won 4 of the 6 men’s races on the 2018 circuit, which is all 4 races that he entered. He took wins at 10k stops in Eliat and Barcelona, and then won 5K races in Copenhagen and Bled, Slovenia to close the season. That includes beating another European Champion Kirill Abrosimov in the Eliat event, and open water World Champion Marc-Antoine Olivier in Barcelona.
Santoni took the overall title in spite of not winning a single race on the circuit. Her best finish was 4th place in August at the Copenhagen 5K, which was won by her countrymate Alisia Tettamanzi.
For their overall series victories, both swimmers received a cash prize determined by the LEN Bureau.