KAZAN, Russia -- Germany won the 5-kilometre team event Thursday for the second consecutive time in open water swimming at the world championships.

The trio of Rob Muffels, Christian Reichert and Isabelle Harle finished in 55 minutes, 50.6 seconds on the Kazanka River. Germany also won the title two years ago in Barcelona, led by veteran Thomas Lurz, who has since retired.

Marcel Schouten, Ferry Weertman and Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands and Allan Do Carmo, Diogo Villarinho and Ana Cunha of Brazil tied for silver in 55:31.2.

Italy finished fourth in 55:49.4, followed by the U.S. trio of Sean Ryan, Jordan Wilimovsky and Ashley Twichell, who touched in 55:50.6.

"It was pretty tough out there because it was all choppy at the end and you couldn't really see the buoys," said Wilimovsky, who already qualified for next year's Olympics with a victory in the 10k.

The non-Olympic event was contested in slightly choppy conditions before rain moved in briefly as the 22-team field was finishing. The air temperature was 25 degrees Celsius and the water was 23 degrees Celsius.

The time trial featured a staggered start of 1 1/2 minutes between the teams made up of two men and a woman. Each team tries to stay together because its time is decided when the last member hits the touchpad.

"It's always hard to know what pace you need to swim for the girl, but we have very strong girls," Weertman said.

The men try to propel their female teammate along often by having her draft behind one of them while the other man brings up the rear.

"The only job I had was to follow the men. After the first lap it was so hard," Harle said. "Rob was watching what I did. If I got slower, he got slower, so he's my man. Maybe I'm a little bit afraid of the guys. If I stop, they will kill me."

The Americans stuck close to defending champion Germany in hopes they could draft their way to a place on the podium.

"Germany was 30 seconds behind us and passed us pretty much at the end of the first leg and we pretty much stayed with them," Twichell said. "It's a tough race not knowing where people are."

Muffels earned his second medal at worlds, having earned silver in the 5k. Weertman took silver in the 10k, earning a trip to the Olympics.