SEVILLE, Spain -- Ksenia Popova and Maarten Van Der Weijden won the 25-kilometer races at the open water swimming championships on Thursday.
Popova clocked 5 hours, 27 minutes, 48.2 seconds to increase Russia's domination of the championships, which were held on the River Guadalquivir. Russia won four of the six gold medals.
Popova defeated silver medalist Edith van Dijk of the Netherlands by 2.1 seconds.
Van Der Weijden of the Netherlands finished in 5:04:1.1 to hold off Mark Warkentin of the United States by 0.5 seconds.
The open-water event, often called a "wrestling match in water" because of aggressive tactics, will make its debut in the Beijing Olympics.