Argentina’s Pilar Geijo and Macedonia’s Evgenij Pop Acev won the third and final stop on FINA’s 2016 Open Water Grand Prix series in Italy.
The Open Water Grand Prix differs from FINA’s Open Water World Cup in that the Grand Prix comprises much longer swims, ranging from 15 to 36 kilometers. The World Cup events are all in the Olympic 10K distance.
The 3rd and final stop on the Grand Prix tour featured the longest course yet: a 36km jaunt between Capri and Napoli in Italy. The event took more than 6 hours even for the fastest swimmers.
Geijo won the women’s race in 6 hours, 46 minutes and 34 seconds (6:46:34), about a minute ahead of silver medalist Olga Kozydub of Russia. Geijo’s win denied Kozydub a sweep after the Russian had won both of the previous series stops in Lac St. Jean, Canada and Ohrid, Macedonia.
For the men, Pop Acev took home the title in 6:17:04, topping Argentina’s Damian Blaum by just 15 seconds. Those two crushed the rest of the field by more than 8 minutes. Pop Acev’s win was the second consecutive win for a Macedonian man, as Tomi Stefanovski won stop #2 in Ohrid.
You can find more information on the Open Water Grand Prix as a whole on the FINA website here.
