Italy’s Martina Grimaldi claimed gold in the women’s 25 kilometres event on the final day of action at the European Open Water Swimming Championships in Hoorn ©Getty Images

Italy’s Martina Grimaldi claimed the gold medal in the women’s 25 kilometres event on the final day of action at the European Open Water Swimming Championships in Hoorn.

The 27-year-old, winner of the event at the 2013 World Championships, clocked a time of 5 hours 26min 47.8sec to finish two seconds ahead of nearest challenger Olga Kozydub of Russia.

France’s Caroline Jouisse was a further 0.7 seconds back, rounding out the podium with a time of  5:26:50.5.

In the men’s event, 2014 European champion Axel Reymond came out on top after clocking 5:02:22.0.

Italians Matteo Furlan and Edoardo Stochino completed the top three with times of 5:06:07.5 and 5:09:19.4. respectively.

France's Axel Raymond won gold in the men's event ©Getty Images
France's Axel Raymond won gold in the men's event ©Getty Images

Italy topped the Championships' overall points standings with 202.

Germany finished second on 116 and hosts The Netherlands came third on 101.

Points were accumulated in men's, women's and mixed categories before being added together.