CHUN’AN, China – Victoria’s Richard Weinberger took second place in the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup race Sunday in Chun’an, China.

The 2012 Olympic medallist continued his preparation for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, with a silver-medal time of 1:53:08 coming just behind Brazilian Allan Do Carmo (1:53:04). Ecuador’s Esteban Enderica (1:53:09) rounded out the medallists atop the 28-man field.

“Anytime you can earn a podium spot at a World Cup is a great thing and it was great to see Richard build on his third-place result from the Rio test event in August,” said Steve Price, Weinberger’s coach at the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Vancouver. “He is learning to be patient by playing the game better. That served him well in Kazan this summer when he earned a nomination to the Olympic team. He showed better speed at the end of the race and was able to outsprint the Ecuador swimmer head-to-head the last 25 metres.”

Chun’an was the penultimate stop on the annually staged elite-level competition, which is organized around eleven meets and takes place in some of the world’s most amazing natural water bodies, either freshwater (lake, rowing course, river) or saltwater (sea).

Weinberger now prepares for the final World Cup race Saturday in Hong Kong.

“He will take what he learned here pre-race as well as during the competition and try to improve next weekend,” Price said. “The field will be tougher and the conditions will be a bit more like Rio. All good stuff for early season preparation.”

On the women’s side, Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha was fastest in a 26-swimmer field at 2:03:36.