LEN Open Water Cup, 1st leg – Top Olympic finishers line up to swim in Lake Ohrid

The LEN Open Water Cup is set for a fresh restart this Saturday in Ohrid (MKD), where a couple of greats will line up for the start, including four swimmers who were ranked in the top six two weeks ago at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The LEN Open Water Cup was one of the last international aquatic events which took place in 2020, at least its opening leg, before the world got frozen by the pandemic. In 2021 more and more open water events have taken place, including the meet with a full programme at the European Aquatics Championships this May, and LEN has decided to restart its traditional series with six legs in the schedule.

This year’s edition features a handful of traditional sites but also new and exciting ones. Lake Ohrid is among the well-known scenes, and the Cup kicks off at this the beautiful venue on Saturday.

And even if the Olympics have just been over, there are stars from Tokyo who seem to be happy to go on and swim another 10km. This promises some excitements, especially in the men’s race where Olympic silver medallist – and former overall Cup winner – Kristof Rasovszky (HUN) will have another showdown with France’s world champion Marc-Antoine Olivier who came 6th in Tokyo and Greece’s new ace Athanasios Kynigakis who stunned many by finishing 5th at the Games. Add Dario Verani (ITA) to the mix, bronze medallist in the men’s 5km at the Europeans and David Betlehem (HUN), junior European champion in the 10km and the scene is ready for a brilliant race in the lake.

The women’s event has one Olympian, Hungary’s Anna Olasz, who was ranked 4th in Tokyo and had a silver from the Europeans this May. Still, she’ll face a tough challenge as France’s world champion Oceane Cassignol will also line up for the start, together with Germany’s never-aging legend Angela Maurer, owner of 8 World Championship and 7 European Championship medals. Despite turning 46 a couple of weeks ago, Maurer is still in fine shape to be in contest for the podium – so it’s worth tuning in and follow both races on the LEN website where we offer our usual free live streaming from the event.

LEN Open Water Cup, Season 2021

• Leg 1: 14 August – Ohrid (MKD)

• Leg 2: 28 August – Istanbul (TUR)

• Leg 3: 14 September – Alghero (ITA)

• Leg 4: 19 September – Rijeka (CRO)

• Leg 5: 25 September – Barcelona (ESP)

• Leg 6: 3 October – Piombino (ITA)

For free live streaming and more:

http://www.len.eu/?p=18290

 

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