Moesha Johnson Clinches Open Water World Cup Crown Following Dominant Series Sweep
Moesha Johnson clinched the overall Open Water World Cup crown as victory in Setubal propelled her to a series sweep.
The Olympic silver medallist arrived in Portugal 650pts ahead of closest challenger Angela Martinez Guillen atop the standings after winning the 10k at all three previous stops of the tour.
Seventh going into the penultimate lap, Johnson picked off the field and came home in 2:08:12.10 to finish the series with 3200pts. Martinez Guillen was second overall (2200pts), 1000pts behind the three-time world champion after finishing sixth (2:08:36.20) with Lea Boy of Germany third with 2100pts after touching the board in fourth (2:08:21.50).
The Australian outpaced the field to win the sprint lap ahead of Ginevra Taddeucci, bronze medallist at the Paris Games behind Johnson, before Bettina Fabian accelerated into the lead.
Fabian continued to hold her position at the top of the field before being displaced by fellow Hungarian Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas with Johnson eight seconds back in seventh.
It was at this point that Johnson made her move, accelerating to the head of the field to take a 1.9sec lead over Taddeucci and there she remained despite the final-lap efforts of Fabian and Mihalyvari-Farkas who finished in 2:08:13.30 and 2:08:15.90 for a Hungarian 2-3.
Fabian finished fourth in the overall standings (1900) ahead of Lisa Pou (1850), Mihalyvari-Farkas (1730), Taddeucci (1650), Caroline Jouisse (1360) and Ichika Kajimoto (900) with Klaudia Tarasiewicz rounding out the top 10 with 806pts.