FINA Newsletter 3/2018: Rostock to perpetuate longstanding diving tradition

UltraMarathon: Argentina and Italy off to a flying start

In the spotlight

Argentina and Italy celebrated a great start of the open water season this weekend in Coronda Santa Fe, the city that was hosting the first meet of the FINA UltraMarathon Swim Series of the year.

On Sunday (February 4), country's top swimmer Guillermo Bertola won the race in 7h32m18s09, while Italy's Edoardo Stochino took silver (7h34m33s50) and compatriot Simone Ercoli took bonze (7h34m36s72).

Despite Edoardo Stochino ranking second in the men's race, Cecilia Biagioli (ARG) was the actual second best swimmer overall and clocked a time of 7h33m47s70, touching home before Stochino.

Italy's Barbara Pozzobon and Alice Franco ranked second and third in respectively 7h42m38s54 and 7h44m33s48.

The 57km-race took place in the river El Rio, north of the city of Rosario in Argentina.

The complete results of the race are available here & Take a look at the photos gallery here

The UltraMarathon circuit next stops in Lac St Jean in Canada on July 28.

Aquatics review of 2017: Swimming

by FINA Media Committee Member Gergely Csurka

The Olympics are traditionally sites of peak performances and one might think that the following year should witness some drop in the quality of the competitions. The great ones would need time to reboot the engines, room opens for newcomers and the disappointed ones would gear up for the next cycle and try to leave the bad taste behind. Still, the times of performances at the Games are supposed to be hard to match as they are set to crown a four-year cycle, reaching the highest speed, while the following season should be a kind of beginning, the start of a long journey, marked by good but not that outstanding efforts.

It wasn't the case in 2017, though.

If we compare the winning times recorded in Rio and in Budapest, the outcome is stunning, especially in the men's events. There are 13 Olympic distances and in 9 the world champion outperformed the Olympic winner! Among the women, the ratio is 6-7, here six events saw faster swims in Budapest, so the Worlds 'won' overall 15-11.

There is a good explanation on hand: in all but three cases (of the 15 when better times were clocked) we saw a changing of the guard, the Olympic gold medallist couldn't add the world crown, the hungry pretenders took over the reign and in doing so they managed to reach a higher gear. When the times were somewhat weaker than in Rio, in 8 out 11 events the Olympic champion went on to win in Budapest too. They were still a class apart but couldn't better themselves (see the probable reasons below). And we had only two Olympic winners who were able to improve in 2017 in clinching the same event.

Let's start with Rio-Budapest winners, especially because those who achieved this double can really be considered the greatest in present-day swimming, true rulers of their respective events.

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The full length article is available in the latest issue of the FINA Magazine