Men’s Race

Image Source: Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Vallée

The men dove in first with the race coming down between Italy’s Domenico Acerenza, Australia’s Nicholas Sloman, and Hungary’s David Betlehem with the Italian coming out on top over the Australian. The top three were separated by a little over one second.

Acerenza improves on his silver medal from the World Championships this year as his win here in Canada allows him to move up in the World Series standings that were led by teammate Gregorio Paltrinieri. Acerenza claims 800 points with his win over Sloman, who we tabbed as a potential spoiler pick over the Europeans in this race, who have dominated in this event as of late on the world stage.

Betlehem finished third overall as he is currently in third place in the standings.

Image Source: Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Vallée

The top three distanced themselves from the rest of the field on the final lap with Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky finishing fourth as he now leads the points standings after competing in all three stops thus far.

Through three of the five stops on the world series, Rasovszky leads over Paltrinieri, Betlehem, Acerenza, and Sloman.

Italy’s Andrea Manzi finished fifth in the race after falling off the lead pack’s pace on the final lap with Italy’s Matteo Furlan and Dario Verani leading the chase pack in sixth and seventh.

Final Sprint Comes Down to a Photo Finish 

 

Women’s Race

 

The women’s race came down to a final sprint between Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands and Ginevra Taddeucci of Italy with Van Rouwendaal, the 10K World champ this year, touching first in another photo finish as they collided a few times on the final straightaway.

Those two had distanced themselves from reigning Olympic champ Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil, who could not match the speed in the end, touching nearly four seconds behind the two leaders in third place.

Image Source: Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Vallée

With the win, Van Rouwendaal pulled to a tie with Cunha in the overall standings as they have two more races to go in the World Series in Puerto Rico (October 7-9) and Israel (November 11-12).

Those three have distanced themselves from everyone else in the overall World Series standings as Taddeucci is third overall with a sizable lead over teammate Barbara Pozzobon, who was eighth today in Canada behind France’s Oceane Cassignol in a photo finish.

Image Source: Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Vallée

Italy’s Giulia Gabbrielleschi and Brazil’s Viviane Jungblut finished fourth and fifth in their own photo finish while Australia’s Moesha Johnson was just behind in sixth.

For many of the open water swimmers, a hectic summer of racing has come to a close after many have raced in the FINA World Championships and European Championships as well as two FINA World Series stops. The next event will be October 7 - 9 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.

Watch it One More Time

Full Results

You can find the events results from Lac Megantic here: