Germany’s Florian Wellbrock led a European clean sweep in the men’s 10km as the opening leg of this year’s World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup took place at Somabay in Egypt.
European swimmers maintained their dominating position of last season as they filled eight of the top 10 places in both the men’s and women’s races, with Italy’s Paris 2024 bronze medallist Ginevra Taddeucci taking second place in the latter contest behind Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Moesha Johnson.
Tokyo 2020 champion Wellbrock, who was disappointed to place eighth at last year’s Paris Games, finished more than 10 seconds clear of France’s Logan Fontaine in 2:01:33.60.
Reflecting on his performance in challenging conditions with a temperature of 21C, Wellbrock told World Aquatics: ”Normally I don’t like the choppy water but I tried to save a lot of energy in the first half of the race.”
Fontaine, who won the 5km world title in Doha last year, clocked 2:01:44.10 with his compatriot Marc-Antoine Olivier, the world 5km and 10km silver medallist who won the overall title in this competition last year, taking bronze after finishing 0.30sec behind him.
Below the two French swimmers European athletes took five of the next seven places.
Australia’s Nicholas Sloman was the top non-European finisher in fourth place, with France’s 20-year-old Sacha Velly, the European and world junior champion, fifth, one place ahead of Italy’s Andrea Filadelli, series winner in last year’s European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup.
Sloman’s compatriot Kyle Lee was eighth, with Piotr Wozniak of Poland ninth and Britain’s Hector Monroe tenth.
Wellbrock’s fellow German and training partner Oliver Klemet, the Paris 2024 silver medallist, finished 17th, and Italy’s European 10km champion Gregorio Paltrinieri was disqualified for a race infraction.
Johnson and Taddeucci finished 16 seconds ahead of the nearest challenger with respective times of 2:06:34.60 and 2:06:37.60, with Johnson’s team-mate Chelsea Gubecka taking third place in 2:06:51.00.
German racers took fourth, sixth and eighth place thanks respectively to Isabel Gose, the Olympic 1500m freestyle bronze medallist, Jeannette Spiworks and Lea Boy.
Spain’s Angela Guillen was fifth, with seventh place going to Poland’s Klaudia Tarasiewicz and ninth and tenth places being filled by Caroline Jouisse of France and Hungary’s Bettina Fabian.
These races were the first to take place within the new open water swimming world rankings system.
Tomorrow Soma Bay will host the mixed 4x1500m event.
The next leg of the World Cup will take place from April 25 to 26 in the Spanish resort of Ibiza.