Ana Marcela Cunha Wins 2019 5K World Championship; Hannah Moore, Leonie Beck Tie for Third

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Photo Courtesy: Swimming Canada / Ian MacNicol

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Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha claimed gold in the women’s 5K Open Water race at the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

Cunha was consistently in the top ten throughout the race, but pulled away in the final 300 meters. A three-time World Champion in the 25K, this is Cunha’s first major gold medal in the 5K distance. She earned bronze in this race in both 2013 and 2017. Cunha also placed fifth in the 10K at these Championships, earning an Olympic berth for 2020.

France’s Aurelie Muller repeated her silver-medal performance from 2017 finishing one second behind the leader. This is her third second-place finish in this event at a World Championships.

Unique in open water, USA’s Hannah Moore and Germany’s Leonie Beck raced for just under an hour only to tie for the third position. The finish was a major improvement for Beck who took twenty-fourth in 2017.

This is Moore’s first major international medal in open water. She was sixteenth with 700 meters remaining in the race before charging to the finish and getting a strong hand on the wall in the end.

Italian duo Rachele Bruni and Giulia Gabbrielleschi took the fifth and sixth spots. Gabbrielleschi was also sixth in 2017.

Reigning 5K World Champion Ashley Twichell of the USA finished in seventh this time around. She was followed by China’s Hou Yawen, France’s Laura Grangeon and Peru’s Maria Bramont-Arias.

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Along with Ana Marcela Cunha, Bruni, Twichell, Beck and Muller also earned Olympic spots by finishing in the top ten of the 10K earlier in the week.

Full results from the 5K are available here. Further open water and World Championship news is also available. The remaining open water races for these World Championships include the team 5K relay and the Men’s and Women’s 25K.

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Thomas A. Small
4 years ago

Congratulations lady’s great job

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