Hungary Sweeps 3K Knockout Races, Mixed Relay To Dominate Europe Open Water Medal Table

European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Championships Stari Grad 2025

• May 28-31, 2025
• Stari Grad, Croatia
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• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap

Hungary dominated the final two days of competition at the 2025 European Open Water Championships, claiming both golds in the inaugural 3K Knockout Event as well as the 4x1500m mixed relay event.

The knockout event, a segmented 1500-1000-500 race that eliminates the lowest finishers after each segment, occurred Friday. This was the first time the event was contested at a major senior international championship, although it has been contested at World Junior Championships as well as the World Cup. Hungarian superstar Kristof Rasovszky became the event’s first champion, holding off Frenchman Logan Fontaine in the final sprint by less than a second.

For Rasovszky, this was a continuation of a very strong meet and season. Earlier in the week, he took gold in the 10k and silver in the 5k. He should extend his lead as the #1 ranked open water swimmer in the world by World Aquatics. Rasovszky set the pace of the first part of the race and dared others to go out with him. He held on through the final segment, albeit by less than a second, to win. His time for the final 500 sprint stood at 5:04.04.

Fontaine claimed his second silver medal of the meet, following a 2nd place effort in the 10k, also behind Rasovszky. David Betlehem added another medal to Hungary’s haul by placing third in the final sprint.

Bettina Fabian kept the Hungary party going in the afternoon when the women’s event was contested. The 20-year-old Szeged native’s first medal of the meet was gold, having a rather dominant last 500 meters and winning by four seconds (5:19.83).

The silver and bronze went to Spaniard Paula Otero and German Lea Boy, respectively. This marks Otero’s first European Championships medal ever, while Boy added to the bronze she scored in the 10k

The next day, Hungary closed out the meet with yet another gold medal in the team relay event. The star-studded group included four individual medalists from the meet: Rasovszky, Bethlehem, Fabian, as well as women’s 10k champion Viktoria Mihalyvari. The squad clocked a time of 1:03:39.45, getting the best of a three-way race between Italy (silver) and France (bronze). All three teams finished within three seconds of each other, while fourth-place Germany finished over a minute back. This podium order is identical to that of the 2024 European Championships in Belgrade.

Final Medal Table

Earning five of the seven golds as well as medaling in every single event, Hungary asserted itself as Europe’s top open water country currently. Italy came in second, thanks to the 5k gold sweep by Gregorio Paltrinieri and Ginevra Taddeucci, while France placed third. Individually, Rasovszky topped the medal table with three golds and one bronze. Taddeucci and Mihalyvari tied individually on the women’s side with one gold and one silver each, but Mihalyvari comes out ahead if you include the relay.