The Russian Open Water Swimming Cup is taking place on the shores of the Black Sea in the village of Sukko, Krasnodar Territory.
The programme of the second stage of the competition, taking place from 9 to 11 August, includes three distances - 1500 metres, 5 and 10 kilometres.
Due to a strong storm, the 10 km swim scheduled for August 9 was first cancelled and then, after a meeting of the judging panel, postponed to the next day. The winner of the race was Alexander Stepanov, Master of Sport International Class, student of the Volga Region University, who overcame ten thousand metres in 1.59.05.2.
The distance was very comfortable, at some point I even remembered the Russian Championship in Rostov-on-Don, because the last lap was the same - I found myself with the same people, in the same situation," Alexander shared. - The postponement of the swim did not affect the preparation in any way, even on the contrary - it diluted a little bit the tense situation with the waves. Today there was a perfect calm, the waves did not interfere, but the problem was the abundance of huge jellyfish, which seemed to be a whole sea. Unfortunately, unpleasant collisions with them could not be avoided. I was satisfied with the final result - I went to this start in a relaxed state and even managed to enjoy the swim".
The next day Alexander took part in the five kilometre swim, where he also managed to win gold with a result of 00.56.03 and confidently beat his nearest rivals - Denis Avdeev and Kirill Belyaev.
Author: Daria Bezzubova
