The American Weinstein was hardly challenged on the final lap as she won by over a minute ahead of Hungary’s Bettina Fabian.
American 16-year-old Claire Weinstein dominated the women’s 10K on the final stage of the 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, taking the lead on lap five and swimming away from the field as if they forgot about her. Weinstein cruised to a win at 1:56:54.30 as Hungary’s Bettina Fabian (1:58:07.50) finished second.
In stark contrast to the men’s race from earlier, Weinstein was all alone at the finish as the chase group ended up bunching up and fighting for the second place as Fabian was able to separate from the pack to touch second.
“This is only my second international open water race so I wanted to go in and do my best so I think I did that,” Weinstein said. “Swimming in wavy waters is difficult for me - I’m used to the pool where it is flat. I just wanted to stay in the front of the pack and see how good I could do. I’m not very good at starting in the back and moving up so I wanted to stay up front and hopefully hold up.”
Many of the swimmers got pushed into the finishing lane rope as they were jostling for position, throwing some of the athletes off their rhythm.
The race for third went to France’s Oceane Cassignol (1:58:09.50) as she got the finish over the likes of Americans Mariah Denigan (1:58:09.70) and Katie Grimes (1:58:09.90). Australia’s Chelsea Gubecka (1:58:10.30) and Germany’s Leonie Beck (1:58:11.00) were also in that lead skirmish as they will both be going to next year’s Olympics by virtue of their medals at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
Beck beat Sharon van Rouwendaal by one-tenth of a second to claim the overall title with 2140 points to van Rouwendaal’s 2100. Beck is the first German woman to win the overall series title since Angela Maurer won in 2011 as she will go into next year’s Olympics as the prohibitive gold medal favourite.
Fabian won the junior title with her second-place finish today as she compiled 1500 points to Weinstein’s 1350 and Grimes’s 1300.
France’s Caroline Jouisse wound up third in the overall standings with her tenth-place finish today as the French Swimming Federation was putting a lot of emphasis on this event to qualify for the Olympics.