2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships – Open Water Swimming
- June 18-July 3, 2022
- Lake Lupa, Budapest, Hungary
- Open Water Results
- Open Water 6K Relay Results
The first open water race of the 2022 World Championships was chaos at FINA’s new preferred open water venue.
The former home of open water in Budapest at Baloton has been eschewed for the more convenient Lake Lupa – an artificial body of water made out of an old quarry.
The 4×1500 meter mixed relay, a 6k in total, is a new event at the World Championships, and so far, it has made a big impression.
Germany’s Florian Wellbrock broke away from the pack late in the final leg of the race to give his team the inaugural gold medal in the event. The German team included Lea Boy, Oliver Klemet, Leonie Beck, and Wellbrock on the anchor. Wellbrock came straight out of the pool, where he won a silver medal in the 800 free and a bronze medal in the 1500 free last week.
The Germans won by about 2.5 seconds ahead of a literal photo finish for 2nd place. Hungary and Italy recorded matching winning times of 1:04:43.0. After review, it was decided that Hungarian anchor Kristof Rasovsky touched the pad just before Italian anchor Gregorio Paltrinieri to take the gold.
The Hungarian relay was made up of Reka Rohacs, Anna Olasz, David Bethlehem, and Rasovzsky. Italy’s relay included Ginerva Taddeucci, Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Domenico Acerenza, and Paltrinieri on the anchor.
Almost every country finished their relay with a man (though there were a few exceptions, including South Africa), but there doesn’t seem to be settled strategy here yet like there is in the pool. Germany swam F-M-F-M, Hungary swam F-F-M-M, and Italy swam F-F-M-M.
Where that gets interesting is that there is a much more substantial ebb-and-flow to the race, which means there aren’t always well-defined packs, and there can be confusion.
To that end, four relay teams were disqualified post-race for going off course: South Africa, Korea, Spain, and Greece.
A group of first-leg swimmers from South Africa, Korea, and Greece took a bad angle and missed the third buoy on the course. Spain’s leadoff Maria De Valdes followed that group, rather than the other group, missing the buoy.
On the day before the competition started, a storm blew through Budapest, which cut-short teams’ final race course preparations. Spanish open water head coach Sergi Garcia said that “it is not an excuse, but what happened yesterday did not play in our favor.”
In the Mixed 4x1500m it came down to the last sprint for the podium finish 🤩 #FINABudapest2022 pic.twitter.com/X6n2VEimCN
— FINA (@fina1908) June 26, 2022
France placed 2nd in the event, followed by Brazil, Australia, the United States, and China rounding out the top 8.
Medals Table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Germany |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 |  Hungary |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 |  Italy |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (3 nations) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
why not 2 silvers?
Because it wasn’t a dead heat. Photo finish pretty clear imo.
Paltrinieri and Wellbrock were literally on the 1500 podium like yesterday lol.
So impressed when swimmers hold a taper through a long meet, do well, then blow it up in a lake right after. After a championship meet I have a hard enough time standing in line at In-N-Out to order multiple cheese burgers.
How many different versions of an open water team event has there been? I feel like there’s a new style every champs 😅
was bella sims always on the relay lineup for usa?
Beast. Goes from swimming a 200 sprint to an open water race, just wow.