Gregorio Paltrinieri and Sharon van
Rouwendaal won the first open water gold medals of Roma 2022 following
victories in their respective 5km events in Ostia.
The sport had been due to begin on
Thursday but due to stormy conditions on the Italian west coast racing had to
postponed by two days.
A condensed schedule opened with the
5km event at 1000 local time before a fresh field took to the course for the
gruelling 25km distance shortly after 1300.
Unfortunately due to deteriorating
weather conditions chief referees and the safety delegate decided to stop the
25km races, with the LEN Technical Open Water Committee then deciding to cancel
the classification for both races.
MEN’S 5KM OPEN WATER
Paltrinieri – who won 800m gold and
1500m silver in the pool last week – was the favourite but knew he was likely
to face a strong challenge from team-mate Domenico Acerenza, Kristof Rasovszky
of Hungary and Frenchman Marc-Antoine Oliver.
Paltrinieri made a strong start and
although his rivals remained close the Rio Olympic 10km open water champion
always looked in control.
The podium line-up can change
dramatically in the closing stages and true to form this would be decided by a
sprint finish with Paltrinieri, Acerenza, Olivier and Logan Fontane racing for
three medals.
The Italians broke clear and
Paltrinieri touched in 52 minutes 13.5 seconds to take gold (by 0.7 secs) from
Acerenza. Olivier edged third by 0.5 seconds from fellow Frenchman Fontane.
“It was special because I saw so many
familiar faces,” Paltrinieri told LEN TV.
“It can be a tricky sea and the first
lap was calm, the second was wavy, which you have to adapt to during the race,
but it was okay and although it was a bit of a battle with people to my left
and right the challenge is always good..”
WOMEN’S 5KM OPEN WATER
The women’s event was also stacked
with talent, headed up by the Rio 2016 Olympic champion and Tokyo 2020 10km
open water silver medallist Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands.
The field also featured World
championship silver medallist Leonie Beck and team-mate Leah Boy of Germany and
a host of other major medal winners such as Aurelie Muller of France and
Italy’s Giulia Gabrielleschi.
However, it was Maria De Valdes
Alvarez of Spain who made not only a surprise early charge, but maintained that
push for the podium throughout the 5km.
Her rivals were close throughout
though and that group included van Rouwendaal.
The Dutch master traditionally looked
to dominate from the front but has adapted her tactics in recent years and she
timed her moment to attack, to perfection, moving clear in the closing meters
to claim gold in 56:58.7.
Spaniard De Valdes Alvarez just
touched in second as a pack of four athletes hit the finish area at the same
time and after a review there was delight for Giulia Gabbrielleschi and Italy
as she secured the final podium place.
“I’m very pleased we got to race
first of all!” van Rouwendaal told LEN TV after claiming her eighth European
open water title.
“I love the fans and when an event is
on the beach there’s a lot of people, like in Rio (at the Olympics) where
people come to watch and here it was the same. The Italians are really
passionate so they were cheering and it made it a really good event.”
25KM EVENT STATEMENT:
This is an official announcement
regarding the Men’s and Women’s 25km Open Water Swimming races at the LEN
European Aquatics Championships, held on 20th August 2022.
Due to a case of emergency because of
the weather conditions, both chief referees and the safety delegate decided to
stop the races immediately for the safety of the Athletes and Officials on the
course.
Since the Chief Referees did not have
a view of the final rankings for both races, the LEN Technical Open Water
Committee decided to cancel the classification for both races.
LEN owes an apology to all athletes
participating this race, who devoted themselves to hard work to be ready for
this event, for not being in a position to determine the final classification,
even though the event was held amid these extreme conditions.
According to LEN’s principles, the
athletes’ and officials’ safety shall prevail in all circumstances.
The 10km races on Sunday and the 5km
Team Relay are planned to be held according to the schedule announced earlier,
from 10.00 and 16.00 respectively.
However, in case of adverse weather
conditions, the races can be postponed or cancelled.
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