At this weekend’s FINA open water swimming world cup in Cozumel, the 4th stop on the tour and the last stop before the world championships in Barcelona, it was the Italians who showed their strength grabbing 4 of the top 6 positions in the the men’s and women’s race.

On the women’s side, it was an insanely close finish but in the end Olympic medalist Martina Grimaldi came out on top, with USA’s Eva Fabian just two tenths behind and Rachele Bruni (ITA) just three tenths behind Fabian. We see finishes like this all the time in the pool and although common in open water, it’s still amazing to consider how much intensity is unleashed after over 2 hours of swimming. Brazils’ Ana Marcela Cuhna just four seconds off the the top three finishers retains her overall series lead.

Fabian had nothing but praise for the event, “It was a great race, beautiful water and beautiful weather. Everyone swam extremely well and it was a great experience”

For the men, Great Britian’s Daniel Fogg was a clear winner with open water legend Thomas Lurz (GER) and Simone Ruffini (ITA) battling it out for the silver and bronze positions.

The race in Mexico also served as a world championship selection event for Canadian team. Zsofia Balazs and Nadine Williams will be representing the Canadian women in the open water race in Barcelona. Olympic medalist Richard Weinberger and 1500 meter pool standout Eric Hedlin will represent the men.

For the American team it’s a good set up for next month’s national championships at Lake Castaic, north of Los Angeles. It’s undoubtedly going to be very interesting see who’s going to be punching their tickets for Spain this summer.

See complete results here.