BARCELONA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Haley Danita Anderson of the United States and Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia won the first gold medals of the world swimming championships here on Saturday as they won the women's and men's 5km open water events.
Anderson dominated the first 2.5 km of the route since the beginning and at the end of the race passed Brazilian swimmer Poliana Okimoto Cintra who finally finished the second place.
Anderson completed the two laps of the 2.5 km route in 56 minutes 34.2 seconds, while Okimoto clocked 56:34.4 and Ana Marcela Cunha, also from Brazil, won the bronze medal in 56:44.7.
Meanwhile the two Chinese swimmers, Cao Shiyue and Fang Yanqiao, finished 20th and 19th in the women's competition.
Mellouli won in the men's category after beating Eric Hedlin of Canada and Thomas Lurz of Germany at the last moment of the race.
Mellouli clocked 53:30.4, just 1.2 seconds ahead of Hedlin. Lurz finished in 53:32.2.
China's Xu Wenchao and Lang Yuanpeng were 31th and 35th respectively.
The open water swimming competition was held at the Moll de la Fusta, at the port placed in the city center of Barcelona, trying to bring the events closer to the citizens and allowing them to enjoy every detail of the competitions.
Apart from the 5km open water competitions, the Port of Barcelona will also host 10km and 25km marathon along with high diving, starting on July 29, which was included into the World Championships for the first time in history.
A total of 2,293 athletes will participate in the world swimming championships this year and 173 of them will take part in the open water competitions.