While the women’s 10 km race at yesterday’s World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup in Golfo Aranci, Italy was dominated by Australian Moesha Johnson (@swimmer_moesha), the men’s race was a lot closer and more competitive.
The first World Cup victory of his career, Sacha Velly of France (World Aquatics bio here, @sacha_velly_officiel) came from behind in a race where Olympic champions Kristóf Rasovszky and Gregorio Paltrinieri led for most of the race.
His gold medal came a week after capturing a silver in last week’s World Cup stage in Ibiza, Spain. He gave credit to his coach, teammates, and the French Swimming Federation. “I’m happy to share this with Marco [Marc-Antoine Olivier] because he’s kind of the one who’s been showing us the way for years. And beyond that, it proves that the work I’ve done with my coach, and the work we’ve done with the Federation – who put us in great training conditions – really works. So we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
In Italy, Velly executed his race plan to perfection. “The plan was to avoid overexerting myself at the start and then make a move at the end, and really focus on the buoys because there were a lot of places to gain. The goal was to go all out in the final kilometer. I felt really good. I managed the whole race well. I started calmly at the beginning and finished strong, and I really felt strong today. I think the mental aspect is crucial. I’m very happy because this is the culmination of a lot of things, and I had already placed on the podium three times, so it’s nice to finally make it happen and win.”
23 swimmers ultimately did not finish; the second consecutive World Cup stage where there were an unusually high number of DNF’s.
World Cup 10 km Results from Golfo Aranci
1. Sacha Velly, France, 21, 1:49:07.50
2. Marc-Antoine Olivier, France, 29, 1:49:07.80
3. Andrea Filadelli, Italy, 25, 1:49:08.30
4. Ivan Giovannoni, Italy, 24, 1:49:12.80
5. Hector Pardoe, Great Britain, 25, 1:49:14.70
6. Logan Fontaine, France, 27, 1:49:14.90
7. Nicholas Sloman, Australia, 28, 1:49:15.10
8. Kristóf Rasovszky, Hungary, 29, 1:49:18.10
9. Marcello Guidi, Italy, 28, 1:49:19.40
10. Oliver Klemet, Germany, 24, 1:49:20.70
11. Euan Liney, Australia, 22, 1:49:21.00
12. Athanasios Kynigakis, Greece, 27, 1:49:26.90
13. Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy, 31, 1:49:27.20
14. Matheus Melecchi, Brazil, 20, 1:49:27.40
15. Emile Mesmacque, France, 19, 1:49:28.00
16. Victor Moreno, Brazil, 19, 1:49:29.40
17. Dylan Gravley, USA, 23, 1:49:29.60
18. David Betlehem, Hungary, 22, 1:49:32.10
19. Martin Straka, Czech Republic, 25, 1:49:32.50
20. Giuseppe Ilario, Italy, 22, 1:49:33.30
21. Ivan Puskovitch, USA, 25, 1:49:35.60
22. David Farinango, Ecuador, 25, 1:49:37.40
23. Christian Schreiber, Switzerland, 23, 1:49:39.40
24. Bailey Armstrong, Australia, 27, 1:49:54.40
25. Pasquale Giordano, Italy, 22, 1:49:57.10
26. Joshua Brown, USA, 23, 1:50:05.10
27. Mario Mendez Puga, Spain, 22, 1:50:05.20
28. Bartosz Kapala, Poland, 19, 1:50:05.40
29. Vincenzo Caso, Italy, 20, 1:50:05.60
30. Kaito Tsujimori, Japan, 20, 1:50:09.10
31. Taishin Minamide, Japan, 30, 1:51:03.70
32. Nolan Carrel, Switzerland, 20, 1:51:09.10
33. Ethan Parker, France, 19, 1:51:44.90
34. Benjamin Wainman, Australia, 22, 1:51:49.80
35. Angelos Christodoulou, Greece, 19, 1:51:54.20
36. Federico Mazzeo, Italy, 22, 1:51:55.90
37. Leonardo Brandt de Macedo, Brazil, 20, 1:51:58.80
38. Denis Borovka, Czech Republic, 20, 1:52:00.50
39. Niccolo Ricciardi, Italy, 23, 1:52:03.00
40. Giovanni Marongiu, Italy, 21, 1:52:04.10
41. Bernardo Gavioli, Brazil, 21, 1:52:05.70
42. Franco Ivo Cassini, Argentina, 32, 1:52:06.10
43. Jaan Pasko, Estonia, 19, 1:52:06.80
44. Kaito Tabuchi, Japan, 23, 1:52:08.20
45. Luca Karl, Austria, 24, 1:52:09.30
46. Kyle Lee, Australia, 24, 1:53:03.60
47. Logan Vanhuys, Belgium, 29, 1:53:05.80
48. Luiz Felipe Loureiro, Brazil, 22, 1:53:09.90
49. Filippos Theofilopoulous, Greece, 22, 1:53:15.00
50. Davide Giuseppe Bonavota, Italy, 21, 1:54:01.60
51. Colin Jacobs, USA, 17, 1:54:48.80
52. Alessandro Cominato, Italy, 19, 1:54:54.60
53. Daniel Carter, Australia, 18, 1:55:08.70
54. Joey Tepper, USA, 23, 1:55:17.40
55. Dylan Hunter Murphy, Australia, 20, 1:57:21.00
56. Kilian Carrel, Switzerland, 22, 1:57:25.00
57. Cheng-Chi Cho, Chinese Taipei, 27, 1:57:51.40
58. Riku Ezawa, Japan, 22, 1:58:07.20
59. Erasmo Valerio, Italy, 19, 1:59:21.70
60. Dogukan Ulac, Turkey, 29, 1:59:51.00
61. Diego Obele Cisneros, Mexico, 24, 2:00:49.60
62. Francesco Esposito, Italy, 17, 2:02:56.80
63. Edoardo Corpolongo, Italy, 15, 2:03:09.90
64. Alessandro Addis, Italy, 25, 2:03:16.20
65. Alessio Marbach, Switzerland, 17, 2:03:27.40
66. Marco Cirelli, Italy, 21, 2:05:08.60
67. Conor Patrick, Australia, 20, 2:05:44.00
DNF Domenico Acerenza, Italy, 31
DNF Diogo Cardoso, Portugal, 25
DNF Konstantinos Chourdakis, Greece, 16
DNF Andrea Conforto, Italy, 21
DNF Fabio Dalu, Italy, 25
DNF Luca de Tullio, Italy, 22
DNF Flavio Degl’Innocenti, Italy, 20
DNF Thomas James Dreverman, Australia, 19
DNF Mateo Garcia Castro, Spain, 21
DNF Davide Grossi, Italy, 19
DNF Luke Hornsey, Great Britain, 20
DNF Giovanni Lauricella, Italy, 18
DNF Claudio Lorenzetti, Switzerland, 22
DNF Davide Marchello, Italy, 24
DNF Alessio Occhipinti, Italy, 30
DNF Francesco Palazzo, Italy, 21
DNF Francesco Persi, Italy, 15
DNF Thomas Edward Raymond, Australia, 23
DNF Elliot Sodemann, Sweden, 28
DNF Paulo Strehlke Delgado, Mexico, 20
DNF Mattia Tarantini, Italy, 16
DNF Dario Verani, Italy, 31
DSQ Percy Escobar, Bolivia, 26
DNF Matteo Diodato, Italy, 23
DNS Giuseppe Francucci, Italy, 17
DNS Aiden Hammer, USA, 18
DNS Filippo Rinaldi, Italy, 23
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