Thomas Lurz of Germany and Larisa Ilchenko of Russia won the 10-kilometre races at the open water swimming world championships Thursday.
Lurz, with his second consecutive win in the championships, swam through the Bay of Naples in two hours 10 minutes 39.4 seconds, to edge Valerio Cleri of Italy by nine-tenths of a second. Evgeny Drattsev of Russia placed a solid third, just over a second behind.
In the women's race, Ilchenko also took her second win in the championship, finishing the course in 2:19.50. Poliana Okimoto of Brazil followed her across the finish line nine seconds later, and Ksenia Popova of Russia took third place another half-second behind.
Ilchenko and Lurz also won the five-kilometre races on Tuesday and are the only swimmers to win gold so far in the waters off the southern Italian city of Naples. The next event is the 25-kilometre race, in which the women will compete Saturday and the men Sunday.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
