American Meyer nabs 25k open water title

Add another title to the U.S. team at the Open Water Swimming World Championships in Roberval, Canada.

Alex Meyer edged Italian rival Valerio Cleri by 1.2 seconds to win the men's 25km race on Thursday, the first worlds medal of his career. Meyer finished in 5 hours, 32 minutes, 39.38 seconds; Cleri touched the pad in 5:32.40.40. Bulgarian Peter Stoychev placed third with a time of 5:33:50.29.

American Eva Fabian won the women's 5k race on Tuesday.

"Winning this race really means more to me than my graduation from Harvard University in May," Meyer said in a story on FINA.org. "Cleri is one of the worlds best open water swimmers. I thought he would be the fastest in the field today and he would be the one I would need to beat if I wanted to win this race."

Cleri was the 10k champion last Sunday. He won the 25k title at last year's FINA World Championships, and placed fourth in the 10k at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Linsy Heister of the Netherlands won the women's 25k title with a time of 5:52:13. Margarita Dominguez Cabezas of Spain placed second in 5:55:59.29, while France's Celia Barrot (5:57:02.87) took third. American Haley Anderson came in fourth with a result of 6:00:15.23.

Some content provided by: FINA.org.