Rachele Bruni maintained her fine form with a second
straight win at the FINA/HOSA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup while Axel
Reymond claimed gold in the men’s race in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
Buoyed by her victory in last month’s opening leg in
Viedma, Argentina, the Italian clocked 2:07:31.08 at the Corniche Breakwater.
She finished ahead of China’s Yan Siyu (2:07:34.05) and 2008 silver Olympic
medallist Keri-Ann Payne (02:07:37.04).
After 8km in windy conditions, Payne led the race with
Bruni breathing down her neck. But
ahead of the final lap, Bruni overtook the Briton and proved to be too strong
for her rivals as she celebrated by pumping her fists in the air at the finish.
“It is always good to have a good result, especially
in a World Cup and in such a good field,” said the 27-year-old, who will
compete in the next leg in Cancun (Mexico) as she aims to qualify for July’s
World Championships in Kazan.
“We had
Poliana Okimoto in there; we had a lot of the Italians and Spanish as well. So
it was great to come away with bronze.”
In the men’s event, Reymond later admitted he was
surprised to win his first World Cup gold in the UAE capital.
"It
was great to come away with bronze" - Payne
The 21-year-old Frenchman was not even in the top
three after the 8km mark, but found his rhythm as the race went on. And with
200m to go, he went from strength to strength to clock 1:57:52.1.
Behind him, Britain’s Jack Burnell, Andreas
Waschburger and Christian Reichert collected the silver and bronze medals
respectively. In a thrilling finish, Burnell edged Reichert to claim silver by
the slimmest of margins after a video replay as both crossed the finish line at
1:57:53.6.
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