The 4th and final stop of the 2026 Open Water World Cup got underway in Setúbal, Portugal this weekend. The sport’s marquee 10k and the knockout 3k event were contested this morning not far from Lisbon’s coast.
Australian titan Moesha Johnson headlined the weekend’s action by going a perfect seven for seven in individual world cup events. In rougher-than-normal conditions, the 28-year-old topped the 10k field. In typical Johnson fashion, she commanded the first sprint lap to earn the bonus. She then let others take the lead, nearly putting herself out of the running, before coming back to lead in the penultimate lap. She fought off a duo of two hungry Hungarians, Bettina Fabian and Viktoria Mihalyvari in the home stretch to strike gold.
Fabian enjoyed her strongest performance and first medal of the year to touch second in 2:08:13.30, only 1.10 seconds behind Johnson. Mihalyvari, a European Junior Champion in the 400 IM, reaffirmed her new place among open water’s elites with a second bronze medal of the year. She scored bronze in the same event at the Ibiza stop earlier in the year.
The following day’s competition saw Johnson and Fabian go 1-2 once again in the knockout sprint. Johnson won every round of the event to cap off a perfect world cup season. In an interview with World Aquatics post-race, she was astonished and said she’s looking forward to the 10k and pool events at Pan Pacs.
The bronze went to Ichika Kajimoto, the 22-year-old out of Japan who has few peers for consistency in this event. Kajimoto is the event’s only ever women’s World Champion and has medaled at four world cups since the events introduction on the global stage in 2025.
In the men’s competition, David Betlehem of Hungary and Oliver Klemet of Germany split the gold medals. Drawing on a successful training camp in Turkiye and watching his female compatriots go 2-3 earlier in the day, Betlehem busted out a 10k victory. It was his 4th World Cup gold of the 2026 circuit. The win was anything but decisive, though, with an on-fire Sacha Velly touching .2 behind for silver. Velly, 21, has quickly emerged as one of the world’s best 10kers. He’s won silver-gold-silver across the last three cups, making the Frenchman a credible podium favorite for any 10k the rest of the quad. France picked up 2nd and 3rd with Marc-Antoine Olivier placing in the bronze position.
Then, in the 3k sprint knockout, Klemet was the uncontested star of the show. Like Johnson, he won all three rounds and finished the final 500 stretch over four seconds ahead of silver medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri. Olivier once again picked up a bronze medal to end a successful circuit on his part. For Klemet, though, this swim demonstrated that he’s successfully juggling open water and pool training. The Magdeburg-trained phenom ranks among the top 5 400 freestylers and the top 3 1500 freestylers in the globe this season.
