One hundred fifty-six athletes across
27 national federations will be competing in the second stop of the World
Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2023 season this weekend in Golfo
Aranci, Italy.
Germany made its presence known two
weeks ago in Egypt as countrymates Leonie Beck and Florian Wellbrock won the
first individual races of the season in what will be a very competitive season
of open water swimming. The World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan
serve as the first step towards earning an open water entry into the Paris 2024
Olympic Games.
The racing is expected to be
excellent with a record number of participants on the start lists.
With a shortened Olympic quadrennial
due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the Tokyo Olympics to 2021, it’s
hard to believe the Paris qualification period has already started to open up
across the five aquatic sport disciplines.
This week’s 10km race in Italy will
see the arrival of last year’s World Series champion Gregorio Paltrinieri, who
did not race in Egypt but will be racing in his home nation this weekend.
Alongside the reigning World Aquatics
Champion in the 10km will be fellow Italians Dario Verani, Domenico Acerenza,
and Andrea Manzi, among others. Verani and Acerenza won medals at the World
Aquatics Championships in Budapest last year, while Manzi placed fifth in the
World Series 2022 overall standings.
The Italians and the Germans are the
two premiere nations in open water swimming at the moment, with the Germans led
by reigning Olympic champion Wellbrock and Oliver Klemet, who is currently
seventh in the World Cup rankings.
A new addition to the Open Water
World Series has been the introduction of the junior rankings and the sprint
rankings, given to the athletes that lead the races at certain checkpoints. The
junior rankings are currently led by France’s Sacha Velly and Germany’s Linus
Schwedler, both of whom will be in Italy this coming weekend.
The sprint rankings are currently led
by France’s Logan Fontaine, who will not be racing this weekend.
Last year’s co-champion Kristof
Rasovszky and rising star, now age 19, David Betlehem, will be representing
Hungary this weekend as they will not be racing in the mixed team relay, but
will be a formidable force in the individual 10K. Rasovszky has had international
success in open water swimming, while Betlehem has the look of a potential
future star.
Leonie Beck scored an upset win two
weeks ago in Egypt over the last two Olympic champions in Ana Marcela Cunha and
Sharon van Rouwendaal, who are perhaps two of the most dominant marathon
swimmers of this century. Both swimmers including Beck will be racing in Italy
this weekend as all three of them won medals in the 10K at the World
Championships last year.
Van Rouwendaal currently has a large
lead in the sprint rankings as she will be one of the main favourites this
weekend.
If an upset is to occur in the
women’s race, look no further than American Katie Grimes, who was fifth at the
World Championships last year at age 16. Grimes burst onto the pool scene in
2021 when she made the final in the 800m freestyle at the Olympics at just 15
as the youngest on the American Olympic swim team.
Now with more experience, including
two silver medals in Budapest last year in the 400m IM and the 1500m freestyle,
Grimes is the next face of open water swimming in the United
The World Junior champion in open
water last year, Grimes did not race in Egypt, as she was racing in the U.S.
open water nationals the week before, which she won. She will be racing in
Italy this weekend where she will not be taken lightly by the competition.
Veteran Aurelie Muller of France, who
will celebrate her 33rd birthday on 7 June, will also be racing after getting
fourth in Egypt. Muller is a two-time World champion in the 10K and has been on
the outside looking in at the last two World Championships in the 10K,
finishing fourth in 2022, and 11th in 2019.
The Olympics has been the one hole in
Muller’s resume. In 2016, she initially touched second but was disqualified for
interfering with a fellow competitor, and she walked away empty-handed. In
2020, she was a spot away from qualification and did not compete in Japan.
Now with a home Olympics on the
horizon, Muller will be a sentimental favourite if she can qualify. A win or
even a podium appearance this weekend will certainly up her confidence as the
countdown to the Fukuoka World Championships continues.
The oldest competitor will be
American Ashley Twichell, who at age 33 is making her return to the sport after
starting a family shortly after the Olympics. Twichell was the World champ in
2017 in the 5K and was sixth at the Olympics in 2021. Recently making her
return to competition, she was fourth at the U.S. Nationals in April and will
be racing alongside rising stars Grimes and 16-year-old Claire Weinstein and
19-year-old Mariah Denigan.
Weinstein has the freestyle range
from the 200m freestyle, which she finished ninth at the World Championships in
in 2022, up to the 10K, where she was third at U.S. Nationals behind Denigan.
For a long time, the open water scene in the United States was led by Twichell
and Haley Anderson, and now those two World champions have passed the baton off
to the likes of Grimes, Denigan, and Weinstein.
The Italians will also be sending a
large contingent due to the event being in its own waters, as last year’s
bronze medalist in the 5K, Giulia Gabbrielleschi and Rio Olympic silver
medalist Rachele Bruni will lead a strong team that will team up with the men
in the mixed relay.
The men’s 10km will begin at 10 a.m.
local time on Saturday with the women’s race starting at 12:30 p.m. The Mixed
4x1500m Relay will begin at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Written by:Andy Ross, World Aquatics
Correspondent
Image Source: Mike Lewis/World
Aquatics
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