The Dutch open water swimmers continued their hot-streak at the Regattastrecke Grunau in Berlin, Germany.
The country pushed further into the lead of the medal tallies at the 2014 European Aquatic Championships with a 3rd gold medal in 5 open water events so far.
The team of men’s 10km champion Ferry Weertman, women’s 10km champion Sharon van Rouwendaal, and Marcel Schouten won in 55:47.8, beating out Greece (56:05.5) and Germany (56:14.8).
In this team format, all three swimmers, at least one of whom must be a woman, swim a 5km open water course. When the 3rd swimmer crosses the finish line, the team’s clock stops.
The Dutch team could be very good in this race for a very long time – their oldest swimmer, Weertman, is only 22-years old. Germany and Greece were 1st and 2nd in this event at Worlds last year, so a relatively easy victory, even with a relatively slow pace, sets them up well for Kazaan.
The 25 kilometer races will finish off the meet on Sunday morning before the action in the pool begins on Monday.
See full race results here in PDF.
Medal tables so far:
 |
 |
 |
Total | |||
| 1 |  |
Netherlands | 3 | 1 | – | 4 |
| 2 |  |
Germany | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 |  |
Russia | 1 | – | 1 | 2 |
| 4 |  |
Great Britain | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| 5 |  |
Ukraine | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 5 |  |
Greece | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 5 |  |
Hungary | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 8 |  |
Spain | – | – | 2 | 2 |
| 9 |  |
Italy | – | – | 1 | 1 |
Judging by the splits and final times, it looks like most teams were using the ‘ducks in a row’ rather than the “flying-V” formation. Are there any pictures out there to show the race, or can anyone confirm whether this is the case?