2025 World Championships
- July 21 – August 3, 2025
- Singapore, Singapore
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- 10k Live Recaps: Women | Men
- 5k Live Recap
- 3k Knockout Live Recap
- Relay Startlist
- Livestream (Pay-To-Watch)
We have made it to the final event of the open water portion of the 2025 World Championships, and I can honestly say it has been a fun ride.
Yesterday, we saw the first iteration of the 3k Knockout on the World Stage, and if that was any indication for how tonight will go, we are in for an exciting evening.
Florian Wellbrock will be swimming on Germany’s relay and looking to make it a complete sweep of the open water events at these World Championships. Yesterday, he won all three races in the 3k knockout, leaving absolutely no doubt about who the best open water swimmer at these championships is. The icing on the cake for him, will be if the German team can lock up the gold in this 4×1500 relay.
They have a chance, Oliver Klemet is their other male swimmer, and he has done very well this week, earning top 10 finishes in the 10k (4th) and the 5k (9th). He missed the final 500 in the knockout, finishing 17th overall, but he did well in the 1500 to start the event, which is what he will be racing tonight.
On the women’s side, they have Isabel Gose, who is another very strong competitor, having finished 5th in yesterday’s knockout. They also have Celine Rieder, who was 5th in the 5k.
Other teams to watch are Australia, who have Moesha Johnson, the 10 and 5k winner, and Italy, who have three-time silver medalist Ginevera Taddeucci and two-time silver medalist Gregorio Paltinieri.
Hungary could also challenge with David Betlehem and Bettina Fabian, who both medaled in yesterdays sprint knockout.
4×1500
1st leg
Australia (Chelsea Gubecka), Italy (Barbara Pozzobon), Germany, France (Clemence Coccordano), and Hungary all started with female swimmers on the first leg. Rieder led off for Germany and Fabian led for Hungary.
Going into the first turn, Thailand, who started with one of their male swimmers Ratthawit Thammananthachote, had a few second lead on everyone else
Throughout the 2nd lap, Thailand continued to lead, with Turkey’s Atakan Ercan sitting behind them.
Many of the top countries, including Italy, Germany, Australia, France, and America (Mariah Denigan) were back in the pack having started with women. Celine Rieder led the pack of women coming out of the last turn, setting up Oliver Klemet strongly to catch the teams ahead.
Top 20 Teams
- Thailand
- South Africa
- Turkey
- Neutral Athletes B
- Korea
- Germany
- Grance
- Taipe
- Italy
- United States
- Hungary
- Brazil
- Nambia
- Mexico
- Australia
- India
- China
- Hong Kong
- Kazakhstan
- Singapore
Leg 2
Marc-Antoine Olivier form France and Oliver Klemet from Germany charged from the very beginning, very quickly taking over the Thai swimmer (Kamonchanok Kwanmuang) who was leading.
Australia was 20 seconds back after the first lap and Nicholas Sloman has a lot of ground to make up on this lap.
As the leg went on, Olivier and Klemet continued to lead with Korea’s Jaehun Park in 3rd. Korea started with both of their male swimmers, so they are expected to fall back.
Italy, Hungary, America, and the Neutral Athletes B all started with both women first. Ginevra Taddeucci is in the water for Italy, and is fighting to keep them in the race with their two men at the back end.
Hungary’s Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas is also in the mix among the women’s swimmers, and when the men’s swimmers take over, they will be attempting to close the gap as well.
Top 10 Teams
- France- FM
- Germany- FM
- Australia- FM
- Korea- MM
- NAB- FF
- Italy- FF
- Hungary- FF
- China- FF
- United States- FF
- Thailand- MF
3rd Leg
France, Germany, and Australia all have women on this 3rd leg. France’s Ines Delacroix and Germany’s Isabel Gose are in the lead by a significant margin, starting the 3rd leg more than a minute ahead of the collection of teams who will be finishing with both of their men’s swimmers.
Australia’s Moesha Johnson has two major goals this lap, holding off the pack of men behind her and making up the 37 seconds that she was behind the French and German teams.
After the first turn, the pack of men from the Neutral Athletes B (Saveliy Luzin), Hungary (Kristof Rasovszky), Italy (Marcello Guidi), China (Wang Kexin), and the United States (Charlie Clark) sat about a minute behind the lead pack.
Isabel Gose from Germany leads the field right now, which makes Wellbrock’s chances of a clean sweep look very promising at this moment.
Around the last turn, Gose had opened up a huge lead on the rest of the field, sitting almost 30 seconds ahead of the pack with France a few seconds behind her, but if what we have seen so far is any indication, if Wellbrock starts with the lead, he will close it out.
Marcello Guidi form italy had an exceptional last straight away, charging past Johnson and eating up the distance between Italy and France.
Top 7 Teams
- Germany
- France +9.2
- Italy +10.2
- Australia +18.1
- Hungary +21.4
- NAB +28.8
- United States +35.7
Leg 4
Gregorio Paltrinieri started the fourth leg of the race incredibly hard, closing a nine second gap on the three-time gold medalist Wellbrock very quickly.
David Betlehem from Hungary joined Paltrinieri as did Logan Fontaine from France and Kyle Lee from Australia.
The very large lead Germany had has quickly become much smaller and we have a race ahead of us.
Around the 2nd to last turn, Wellbrock still had the lead, but the pack behind him was not letting up, and Paltrinieri is pulling out all the stops to swim past Wellbrock.
Behind them Betlehem and Fontaine were locked in a battle for 3rd, but Betlehem pulled away on the final straight away.
As the final straight continued, Wellbrock proved why he has won every race this World Championships, turning the gas on, and blocking Paltrinieri to win the gold for Germany.
Top 3 Teams
- Germany- 1:09.13.30
- Italy-1:09:15.40
- Hungary- 1:09.16.70
Team GB didn’t fancy competing in open water? What’s going on over there?
Hector pardoe did the 10k. But otherwise I don’t think GB has anyone competing over 400m at Worlds. Going through a bit of a distance slump.
They competed…
Well Hector P did. 25th in the men’s 10k.
gold for wellbrock and silver for italy for the 1047295th time nice
They almost got the box set of silvers missing only the men’s 3km knockout
Italy + silver =
Disappointing end to Australia OWS campaign after multiple top 10 finishes by both men and women… on paper they were a top 3 team. .. but I gues 4 medals is still very admirable ..
Yes, regrettably we’ll have to be satisfied with a couple of gold and a couple of bronze.