Upper photo on left shows silver medalist Mario Sanzullo (Italy), gold medalist Marc-Antoine Olivier (France), bronze medalist Timothy Shuttleworth (Great Britain) at the 2017 FINA World Swimming Championships 5 km podium in Lake Balaton, Hungary.
Lower photo on left courtesy shows winning French 5 km team of Logan Fontaine, Oceane Maryse Jeannie Cassignol, Aurélie Muller and Marc-Antoine Olivier. Both photos courtesy of Giorgio Scala, Deep Blue Media.
2016 Olympic 10K Marathon Swimming bronze medalist Marc-Antoine Olivier is young enough (21) to be a threat at both the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and his hometown 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
If he hangs in there, then France will have a lot to cheer for in the Seine.
After winning the 5 km solo race and a bronze in the 10 km race, Olivier had the fastest split time in the four-person 5 km team relay. He swam 12:08.7 leg over the 1.25 km course – a blazing fast time that France needed to hold off the fast-closing Americans and Italians. His anchor leg solidified the French victory by Logan Fontaine, Aurélie Muller and Oceane Maryse Jeannie Cassignol in Lake Balaton, Hungary.
The four members of each team, including 2 men and 2 women, swam 1.25 km before touching their teammate and swimming off.
Brendan Casey put his American team in first with his lead-off leg among the 19 international teams with a 14:00.3 split with Japan’s Yohsuke Miyamoto behind followed by Brazil’s Allan do Carmo.
5 km gold medalist Ashley Twichell exchange a legal touch above the water and took off, but Great Britain’s Tobias Robinson took over the lead with Japan still in second on the strength of Yasunari Hirai with South Africa in third due to a strong leg by Chad Ho.
Great Britain’s 5 km bronze medalist Timothy Shuttleworth opened up a nearly 50-meter lead, but the major change was the tremendous third leg by 10 km gold medalist Aurélie Muller who put France in a strong second position – but still nearly 40 seconds behind Great Britain and almost 13 seconds ahead of third-place Italy that was pulled into third by Federico Vanelli who said later, “Rachele Bruni and Giulia Gabbrielleschi did a great job, so I was in a relative good position as the third swimmer. We have a strong team.”
Oceane Cassignol of France admitted, “I felt some pressure before the race, since being the first swimmer in the team event is not easy. That’s why I was a little bit nervous, but in the end we managed to win the gold medal.”
Olivier acknowledged the degree of patriotism – which helped spur him on his uber-fast leg. “I won the gold medal here in the 5 km, and the bronze medal in the 10 km, but I was still very motivated, since winning for my country with the team is a great feeling. Open water swimming is kind of an individual sport so actually it is fun to work with your teammates. Every time when we [put on our swim] caps, our goal is to win outside. I think we all swam really well and we swam the races the way we wanted.”
5 km Mixed Relay Results:
1. France: 54:05.9
* Oceane Maryse Jeannie Cassignol 14:28.20
* Logan Fontaine 27:50.00
* Aurélie Muller 41:57.20
* Marc-Antoine Olivier 54:05.9
2. USA: 54:18.10
* Brendan Casey 14:00.30
* Ashley Twichell 28:06.80
* Haley Anderson 42:12.60
* Jordan Wilimovsky 54.18.1
3. Italy: 54.31.0
* Rachele Bruni 14:32.70
* Giulia Gabbrielleschi 28:47.50
* Federico Vanelli 42:10.50
* Mario Sanzullo 54.31.0
4. Australia: 54:42.9
* Kareena Lee 14:30.60
* Jack Brazier 28:08.40
* Kiah Melverton 42:17.70
* Jack Alan McLoughlin 54:42.9
5. Great Britain: 54:51.10
* Danielle Huskisson 14:24.80
* Tobias Patrick Robinson 27:39.20
* Timothy Shuttleworth 41:19.90
* Alice Dearing 54:51.10
6. Brazil: 55:19.60
* Allan do Carmo 14:08.60
* Viviane Jungblut 28:26.90
* Ana Marcela Cunha 42:42.60
* Fernando Ponte 55:19.6
7. Hungary: 55:23.70
* Janka Juhasz 15:03.70
* Kristóf Rasovszky 28:13.60
* Melinda Novoszath 42:47.40
* Gergely Gyurta 55:23.70
8. Germany: 55:41.80
* Finnia Wunram 15:08.30
* Leonie Beck 29:44.10
* Soren Detlef Meissner 43:16.10
* Rob Muffels 55:41.80
9. Japan: 55:54.00
* Yohsuke Miyamoto 14:07.60
* Yasunari Hirai 27:45.30
* Yukimi Moriyama 42:21.20
* Minami Niikura 55:54.0
10. Russia: 55:55.10
* Sergey Bolshakov 14:13.40
* Daria Kulik 28:43.90
* Kirill Abrosimov 42:11.20
* Mariia Novikova 55:55.1
11. Canada: 55:58.3
* Richard Weinberger 14:08.70
* Stephanie Horner 28:39.40
* Eric Hedlin 42:23.20
* Breanne Emma Joan Siwicki 55:58.30
12. South Africa: 56:05.3
* Chad Ho
* Robyn Kinghorn
* Nico Manoussakis
* Danie Marais
13. Argentina: 56:43.4
* Julia Lucila Arino
* Guillermo Bertola
* Cecilia Biagioli
* Joaquin Moreno
14. Ecuador: 58:01.2
* Samantha Arévalo Salinas
* David Castro
* Ivan Enderica Ochoa
* Patricia Guerrero
15. Israel: 58:20.7
* Eden Girloanta
* Shahar Resman
* Yuval Safra
* Chaya Simone Zabludoff
16. Czech Republic: 58:32.2
* Alena Benesova
* Vit Ingeduld
* Matej Kozubek
* Lenka Sterbova
17. Mexico: 58:32.5
* Maria Jose Mata Cocco
* Arturo Perez Vertti Ferrer
* Martha Ruth Aguilar Ortega
* Alfredo Villa Mejia
18. Kazakhstan: 1:00:59.3
* Lev Cherepanov
* Kenessary Kenenbayev
* Nina Rakhimova
* Xeniya Romanchuk
19. Hong Kong: 1:02:11.7
* Hoi Man Lok
* Tsz Yin Nip
* Chin Ting Keith Sin
* Tsz Fung Tse
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