Ana Cunha & Marc-Antoine Olivier Head Brazilian & French 1-2s At World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2024
Ana Cunha and Marc-Antoine Olivier led respective Brazilian and French 1-2s at the second stop of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2024 in Sardinia.
Italy concluded the stop in Golfo Aranci with victory in the mixed 4×1500 relay with the next event set to take place in Setubal, Portugal, in October following Paris 2024.
Olympic champion Cunha was seeking her first international open water title since victory in the Marathon Swim World Series in July 2022 before the 32-year-old underwent shoulder surgery towards the end of that year.
The Brazilian’s teammate Vivianne Jungblut led through halfway ahead of the likes of Australia’s Bianca Crisp and Japan’s Airi Ebina before Doha bronze medallist Angelica Andre of Portugal went to the head of the field.
Ginevra Taddeucci and Sharon van Rouwendaal overtook Andre on lap five to collect the available sprint points on the odd laps with the Netherlands swimmer taking the lead.
She extended her advantage on the final lap but with around 700m to go, 2023 world champion Leonie Beck and Cunha made their moves.
Beck went ahead with 500m left but Cunha ate into the lead and came past with 100m remaining to take the title in 2hrs 02mins 00.70secs ahead of teammate Jungblut (2:02:02.00) and Beck (2:02:02.70) with Van Rouwendaal and Caroline Jouisse next home.
Olivier Leads French 1-2
Marc-Antoine Olivier: Picture courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Hungary’s David Betlehem tried to break the pack on lap four of the men’s race, holding a lead of about two meters through the end of lap five.
Logan Fontaine was tucked in behind the Hungarian for the entirety of the penultimate lap with Olivier and Kristof Rasovszky tussling for third place.
By the start of lap six, Fontaine drew level with Betlehem and Olivier stayed on the Hungarian’s feet.
Betlehem fended off challenges before Rasovszky went ahead with around 1000m to go only for Olivier and Fontaine to make their moves with the former to make a decisive charge with 300 to go.
The Olympic bronze medallist touched the board in 1:50:03.00 ahead of Fontaine (1:50:04.40) and Rasovszky (1:50:04.50) with Betlehem and Andrea Filadelli fourth and fifth respectively.
The Italy quartet of Taddeucci, Veronica Santoni, Filadelli and Gregorio Paltrinieri took the team title in 1:06:58.80 ahead of Germany (1:06:59.80) and Hungary (1:07:00.10).