DOHA, Qatar (AP) – Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands used a ferocious sprint to the finish to defeat Spain’s Maria de Valdes and reclaim the women’s open water world title in the women’s 10k race on Saturday. .
Van Roeuwendaal had the top touch at the World Aquatics Championships in 1:57:26.80, just a tenth of a second ahead of de Valdes. The bronze medal went to Angelica Andre of Portugal, 1.4 seconds behind the winner.
Van Roeuwendaal’s finishing kick in the last 500 meters of a rough race at the end of six laps around the old Doha port dropped Australia’s Moesha Johnson from the lead to fourth.
Van Lowendaal, 30, regained the title he held at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. She finished fourth last summer in Fukuoka, Japan, where Germany’s Leonie Beck swept the 5k and 10k titles.
Beck finished 20th in Doha, 45 seconds behind the winner.
Van Lowendaal is a long-time star on the open water circuit.she won Gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and caught silver At the Tokyo Games three years ago.
In other finals on the second day of the first world championships in the Middle East, 13-year-olds Huang Jianjie and Zhang Jiaqi won diving gold for China in the mixed 10m synchro platform event.
Greece’s Evangelia Platanioti won her first gold medal in artistic swimming and took first place in the women’s solo technical category.
China, which won 12 of 13 diving golds at the Fukuoka World Championships, did not compete in Friday’s first two events. Give other countries a chance to shine.
Many countries sent scaled-down teams to Doha, where the world championships will be held. 1 year behind schedule Due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing meant it was held just five months before the Paris Olympics, making it the first time the championships have been held in the same calendar year as the Summer Olympics.
Hwang and 19-year-old Chan regained their composure in the diving pool and cruised to victory with a score of 353.82. Zhang teamed up with Wang Feilong in this event and won the gold medal at the Fukuoka Games.
North Korea’s Cho Jin-mi and Lim Young-myung won the silver medal with 303.96 points, while the bronze medal went to Mexico’s Kevin Berlin Reyes and Alejandra Estudillo Torres with 296.13 points.
Platanioti, 29, won the artistic swimming gold medal with a score of 272.9633. Canada’s Jacqueline Simoneau won the silver medal (269.2767 points) and China’s Xu Huiyan won the bronze medal (262.3700 points).
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