LAUSANNE, Switzerland, October 11. ANA Marcela Cunha, from Brazil, has reinforced her lead of the 2010 FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World ranking, by winning the seventh meet of the series, held in Cancun (MEX), on October 9. The Brazilian star took 2h17m29s to complete the race. Among men, the victory went to Francis Crippen (USA), who completed the 10km (four laps of 2.5km) in 2h07m53s. Fifty-six swimmers from 11 nations took part in the event in Cancun.
The women's race was quite thrilling, with two athletes swimming side by side until the finish line – Cunha and Christine Jennings (USA). In the end, the Brazilian was stronger and touched home with one-second advantage over Jennings (2h17m30s). Germany's Angela Maurer earned the bronze medal, by finishing in 2h17m36s. Maurer is the current runner-up in the overall ranking of this year's 10km World Cup, and may still hope the final victory should Ana Marcela Cunha badly fail her race in the last leg of the circuit in Sharjah (UAE), on October 23.
Among men, the supremacy of the United States was complete, as the three medals went to swimmers from that country. Besides Crippen's triumph, Charles (‘Chip') Peterson was second in 2h08m04s2, and Mark Warkentin finished third within the same second (2h08m04s6).
In the men's overall ranking, Chad Ho (RSA, fifth in Cancun) continues to lead, while Crippen consolidated his second position. Allan do Carmo (BRA), third of this classification, was sixth in Mexico and has therefore good chances of concluding in the top-3 at the end of the series.
Full FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup 2010 calendar:
Race 1: January 31, 2010 in Santos (BRA)
Race 2: February 6, 2010 in Viedma (ARG)
Race 3: June 26, 2010 in Setubal (POR)
Race 4: July 25, 2010 in Lac St-Jean (CAN)
Race 5: September 25, 2010 in Shantou (CHN)
Race 6: October 3, 2010 in Hong Kong (HKG)
Race 7: October 9, 2010 in Cancun (MEX)
Final race: October 23, 2010 in Sharjah (UAE)
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