Italy's Simone Ruffini (L) celebrates his gold medal together with USA's silver medalist Alex Meyer following the men's 25km open water race at the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Saturday. — Reuters KAZAN, Russia — Italy's Simone Ruffini won gold in the men's 25-km open water race Saturday, edging out Alex Meyer of the United States at the World Swimming Championships.
Ruffini and Meyer battled through the rain on the Kazanka river to pull out a big lead. The Italian had more energy left for the final sprint to win in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 10.7 seconds.
It was the first medal over 25K at a major championships for Ruffini, previously a European silver medalist in the team event.
Meyer took silver, 4.4 seconds behind, and the bronze went to Ruffini's Italian teammate Matteo Furlan, 1:27.3 seconds off the pace.
In the final open water event of the championships, Ana Marcela Cunha won gold for Brazil in the women's 25K with a dominating final lap.
With more than 5K remaining, Cunha and Hungary's Anna Olasz broke away from the pack before the Brazilian put in a final burst of speed to win in 5:13:47.3, with Olasz 26.1 behind.
It was Cunha's and Brazil's third medal of the championships after silver in the team event and bronze in the 10K.
There was bronze for Germany as Angela Maurer took third, 1:20.3 off Cunha's time.
The United States finished top of the open water medal table with two golds, won by Haley Anderson in the women's 5K last week and Jordan Wilimovsky in the men's 10K Monday.
Meanwhile, host Russia remains unbeaten in the synchronized swimming team free event after winning a fifth straight gold Friday.
Russians have won the team free gold at every championships since the event was introduced in Melbourne in 2007.
The Russians claimed gold with a winning tally of 98.4667 points as China took silver with 96.1333 pts and Japan claimed bronze with 93.9000 pts.
The Russians have now won seven of the eight synchronized swimming events in Kazan, with only the free routine combination still to come, having swept the board with seven golds from seven events in Barcelona two years ago. — Agencies
