Germany successfully defended its team open water title here on Thursday.
The trio of Rob Muffels, Christian Reichert and Isabelle Haerle clocked a winning time of 55 minutes, 14.4 seconds while Brazil and European champion the Netherlands both shared silver as their three swimmers finished in an identical time of 16.8secs back.
“I had a bit of fear after the first very fast lap whether I could sustain the pace,” admitted Haerle.
The Netherlands swimmer Ferry Weertman, whose Twitter account is the imaginatively named @veryferryfast, claimed his second silver of these world championships having finished second in Monday’s 10km men’s race.
German youngster Muffels, 20, added gold to the silver he won in the men’s 5km race on Saturday.
His compatriots Reichert and Haerle were part of the German team which won gold two years ago in Barcelona with Muffels new to the trio, replacing retired seven-time world gold-medallist Thomas Lurz.
The open water team event is a time trial with each country nominating two male and one female swimmers.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Russia’s Natalya Ishchenko won a record 18th career synchronised swimming gold medal in the solo free routine.
Her programme scored 97.2333 points to beat China’s Huang Xuechen by 1.5333 points. The bronze went to Ona Carbonell of Spain on 94.9000 points. Ishchenko’s win moves her one ahead of her long-time duet partner Svetlana Romashina, who has 17 world championship gold medals.
“I actually try not to count how many medals I have,” Ishchenko said. “Each final is a big responsibility and I approach them with real seriousness and today I was really worried.”
Ishchenko took a break after the 2012 Olympics to raise a family and the world championships were her first major competition since her comeback.
“I knew everyone was going to be looking at me, that there’d be focused attention on how I do after two years away,” said Ishchenko, who is aiming to add to her three Olympic gold medals at next year’s games in Rio de Janeiro.
Russia has won four of the five synchronized swimming gold medals so far here, with the host’s only defeat coming in the mixed duet technical routine, won by Christina Jones and Bill May of the United States.
At the Aquatics Palace, Tom Daley and Rebecca Gallantree of Britain won the team diving title in the event’s debut at the worlds. The duo totalled 434.65 points during the three-round competition.
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Iuliia Prokopchuk of Ukraine earned silver with 426.45. Each of them hit their best dives from 10 meters in the final round to gain the podium. Xie Siyi and Chen Ruolin of China took bronze at 425.40.
Daley, the Olympic bronze medallist on the 10m, used consecutive dives off the tower to propel his team to victory. He received perfect 10s for his second dive and followed up with 9.0s on his third.
Each man and woman did three dives, and each had to do at least one dive from both the 3-meter and 10-meter boards. Each diver’s scores were combined for their total.
The results:
Team 5km Open water: 1. Germany 55:14.4s, 2. Brazil & The Netherlands 55:31.2.
Women’s synchronised individual freestyle: 1. Natalia Ischenko (Rus) 97.2333 points, 2. Huang Xuechen (Chn) 95.7000, 3. Ona Carbonell (Esp) 94.9000.
Diving: Mixed team: 1. Rebecca Gallantree & Tom Daley (GBR) 434.65, 2. Oleksandr Gorshkovozov & Iuliia Prokopchuk (Ukr) 426.45, 3. Xie Siyi & Chen Ruolin (Chn) 425.40.
