Fina/Hosa marathon open water swim world series |21 May 2018
Italians Arianna Bridi, Simone Ruffini take wins
It was a tight finish for the women’s and men’s second leg races of the Fina/Hosa marathon open water swim world series as 2017 winners Arianna Bridi and Simone Ruffini of Italy sprinted to the finish line of yesterday morning’s 10km contests in the turquoise sea at Beau Vallon.
Bridi’s winning time was 1 hour 58 minutes 32.3 seconds (1h58:32.3) while Ruffini reached home in 1h49.41.9.
It was the first time Seychelles was hosting the competition and clearly the country deserves an A+ grade for organisation, especially after the organisers had to work overtime on Saturday after calling off the day’s mass event after all the pontoons and buoys were lost or damaged by bad weather late Friday afternoon.
The organisers had to recover everything and place them back on Saturday after the sea at Beau Vallon had returned to its usual calmness at this time of the year in north Mahé, ready for yesterday morning’s event. They organised an event to the highest possible level. Well done!
A new date for the mass event has not been set yet.
Vice-President Vincent Meriton, Designated Minister Macsuzy Mondon, ministers Didier Dogley and Jean-Paul Adam were among the guests under the stands with a nice view of the area reserved for the event.
The first race started at exactly 8am as planned and reaching the end of the sixth lap, the female swimmers started to fight for position on the final 500m, forcing chief referee Laurette Miller of Seychelles to use her whistle more often to get them to avoid too much contact and to compete fairly.
Winner of three races last year, Bridi made sure of victory yesterday (1h58:32.3), relegating Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha into second place (1h58:32.6) and fellow Italian Martina De Memme into third position (1h58:33.4).
“The race was very hard, because the weather is very hot. I tried to increase the speed of the race half way through and tried to stay in first position until the end. Seychelles is fantastic, it’s like paradise and I think everyone dreams to be here. There was contact with the other swimmers at the end of the competition, that true Italian anger came out and I reacted at the end of the race. We had four swimmers from Italy and only three can compete in the upcoming European Championships, so every win counts at this point,” female 10km race winner Bridi told the media.
Twenty-six female swimmers took part in the race and they all finished, while Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands who won the first race in Doha, Qatar in 2h02:24.40, failed to get a podium finish this time as she was ranked sixth with a time of 1h58:36.5.
All eyes were on the Payet brothers – Bertrand and Damien – for the men’s race as once again they took up the challenge of racing against the best and many wanted to see how they would do and if they would finish within the time limit. And they did it this time after not being ranked in their first ever race in Doha.
Although it was not as close as the women’s, the men’s race was dominated by Italian Simone Ruffini who showed why he is the two-time defending champion of the Fina/Hosa 10km marathon swimming world cup title.
His winning time was 1h49:41.9 and in second and third places were the Great Britain duo of Jack Burnell (1h49:44.0) and Rob Frederik Muffels (1h49:46.3).
Male winner Ruffini described his first competition in Seychelles as a great success and added that the temperature worked to his advantage.
“Today is my first win in the Fina open water competition this year and also my first swim in the Seychelles water. After my first win, I think I can go on to win the Fina open water competition because last year I won three series, so I definitely think with the experience along with my first win today, I can go on to win more legs of the competition,” said Ruffini.
Netherlands’s Ferry Weertman won the first race in 1h52:41.60, but could only finish joint-fourth with Italian Andrea Manzi in 1h49:46.4.
Out of the 26 swimmers who took the start of the gruelling 10km race, 24 finished with Damien Payet taking 23rd position in 2h11:55.4 (22:13.5 slower than the winner) and big brother Bertrand claiming 24th place in 2h19:15.9 (29:34.0 slower than the race winner). German Ruwen Straub did not finish and Abdulaziz Al-Obaidly of Qatar finished outside the time limit which is 30 minutes after the first swimmer had reached home.
Meanwhile, Fédération internationale de Natation (Fina) vice-president Stephane Cassidy was thrilled with Seychelles’ involvement in the first ever Fina open water swimming competition and he explained that for a first time it was a great success.
“Seychelles did a great job, it was a challenge, the storm that rolled through on Friday had a lot of people doubting, but the one thing was the attitude of the local people. The officials put on their boots and said ‘let’s get to work’ and I was very impressed. In any race, any time, with the most experienced organisers, we will always have glitches and things they can do better, however overall this has been an exciting first go at what we hope will be many years of a relationship,” said Cassidy.
He also went on to explain that the next time will be even better and he hopes that a schedule is made so that international races are done nearby so that more time can be spent on preparation.
“Coming to a site like this is fantastic, leaders from different federations can organise their budget and I’m sure they’d love to come to Seychelles,” added Cassidy.
What is certain is Seychelles will be hosting the Fina/Hosa marathon swim world series for four consecutive years.
The remainder of the series is due to take place in Setubal (Portugal, June 9), Balatonfüred (Hungary, June 16), Lac St. Jean (Canada, July 26), Lac Megantic (Canada, August 11), Chun’An (China, September 16), Taiwan (September 22) and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates, November 24).
R. R.