The 2018 Open Water Marathon World Series is nearing the end, with just two events to go. The eighth stop in the series is in Chun’An (CHN) for men’s and women’s races on Sunday (16th).
The series standings would be useful to show, but the FINA Web site (as of 13 September) only only updated through four races and not six, so we can’t provide current information. But relative to the six races held so far, we can say:
∙ Men: There have been six winners in six races so far, with Ferry Weertman (NED) and Simone Ruffini (ITA) the only swimmers with two medals. Weertman, the Olympic champ in Rio in 2016, won the first race of the year in Doha (QAT) and was second at Balatonfured (HUN). Ruffini, the 25 km World Champion from 2017, won the second race at the Seychelles and was third in Doha.
∙ Women: Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha, the three-time 25 km World Champion, has been superb this season with two wins and a second in the six races, and is the only three-time medalist. Four others have won two medals so far: Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED: 1st +2nd), Haley Anderson (USA: 1+2), Rachele Bruni (ITA: 2+3) and Samantha Arevalo (ECU: 3+3).
Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky won last year’s race at Chun’An ahead of Brazil’s Allan Do Carmo and Cunha won the women’s division ahead of Bridi.
Prize money in this event is $3,500-3,000-2,500-1,700-1,500-1,200-950-650 for the top eight place winners in both the men’s and women’s races. The final event in the series will be on 9 November in Abu Dhabi (UAE).
Look for results here.
