Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
The global tour of the FINA/HOSA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup culminated in Hong Kong in a great race.
Coming into the final race, Rachele Bruni of Italy held onto a lead with 66 series points with Poliana Okimoto of Brazil in second with 58 points and Angela Maurer of Germany in third with 49 points.
In the topsy-turvy world of professional marathon swimming with close races and unexpected finishes, any one of the three could potentially win the title.
But like her Italian teammate, Simone Ruffini, Bruni was able to pull away and win comfortably by 15 seconds to win the overall series title and her third race this season. Bruni was followed by her teammate Arianna Bridi and Okimoto who also followed Bruni at the Rio Olympics.
“[Bruni and I] work together everyday during the week. But today we worked for ourselves,” said Bridi. “I’m very happy today with my result. I’m not the strongest swimmer in the field so this is a good start for the season.”
Final Results:
1 Rachele Bruni (ITA) 2:17:12.70
2 Arianna Bridi (ITA) 2:17:28.20
3 Poliana Okimoto Cintra (BRA) 2:17:28.20
4 Ana Marcela De Jesus Soares Da Cunha (BRA) 2:17:29.60
5 Angela Alexandra Maurer (GER) 2:17:31.70
6 Cecilia Elizabeth Biagioli (ARG) 2:17:32.60
7 Ashley Grace Twichell (USA) 2:17:32.60
8 Yumi Kida (JPN) 2:17:32.60
9 Sharon Van Rouwendaal (NED) 2:17:56.70
10 Yukimi Moriyama (JPN) 2:17:56.80
11 Olga Kozydub (RUS) 2:18:00.00
12 Emily Ann Brunemann (USA) 2:19:10.30
13 Xin Xin (CHN) 2:19:14.50
14 Daria Kulik (RUS) 2:19:15.10
15 Heidi Gan (MAS) 2:19:15.30
16 Minami Niikura (JPN) 2:19:26.20
17 Eva Fabian (USA) 2:19:26.60
18 Taylor Ann Pike (USA) 2:21:16.60
19 Lei Shan (CHN) 2:21:25.70
20 Svenja Theresa Zihsler (GER) 21:21:38.10
21 Nataly Rosalia Caldas Calle (ECU) 2:24:28.40
22 Adel Farkas (HUN) 2:32:20.20
23 Lee Tiffany Wan Fung (HKG) 2:41:50.50
24 Shih-han Su (TPE) 2:43:20.20
25 Honoka Hasegawa (JPN)
26 Pac Tung Nikita Lam (HKG) 2:51:16.60
DNF Hannah Hang Fung Li (HKG)
DSQ Bingqing Wang (CHN)
DSQ Muran Tian (CHN)
Bruni shown above receiving her gold medal at the 2011 World University Games.
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