Team Australia won the mixed 4x1500m open water swimming gold with the quartet of Moesha Johnson, Chelsea Gubecka, Nicholas Sloman, and Kyle Lee.
Team Italy was only 0.2 seconds behind, taking silver in the 4x1500m mixed relay with Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Arianna Bridi, Gregorio Paltrinieri, and Domenico Acerenza.
Team Hungary took the bronze with Bettina Fabian, Mira Szimcsak, David Betlehem, and Kristóf Rasovszky.
Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack and Emma McKeon are all names that Australian swimming and sports fans know well – and they are favored in all their solo and relay events heading into the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Without a doubt, the deep Australian female freestyle group are extremely fast – and Chelsea Gubecka has now earned her way among the Australian – and world’s elite freestyle swimmers.
Gubecka unselfishly gave up her spot in the 10 km individual Olympic qualification race on Saturday. Why? To give one of her Australian teammates a shot to qualify for the Paris Olympics (Moesha Johnson finished 4th to qualify for Paris while Maddy Gough finished 18th). It was this kind of innate Australian teamwork and support that the Aussie swimmers have long been known for. And it was that kind of teamwork and patriotic passion that helped Johnson, Gubecka, Nicholas Sloman and Kyle Lee sprint to gold in the 4x1500m mixed relay today – but just slightly over another blazing fast Italian team of Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Arianna Bridi, Gregorio Paltrinieri, and Domenico Acerenza.
While the 4x1500m mixed relay is not an Olympic event, it was a great way to end the open water swimming schedule in Doha at the World Aquatics Championships.
Now onwards to Paris and the Seine where two more marathon races will be terribly exciting, maddingly close, and totally unpredictable.
Let the Games begin.
World 4x1500m Mixed Relay Results
- Australia 1:03:28.00 (Moesha Johnson, Chelsea Gubecka, Nicholas Sloman, Kyle Lee)
- Italy 1:03:28.20 (Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Arianna Bridi, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Domenico Acerenza)
- Hungary 1:04:06.80 (Bettina Fabian, Mira Szimcsak, David Betlehem, Kristóf Rasovszky)
- Germany 1:04:11.60 (Leonie Beck, Celine Rieder, Oliver Klemet, Arne Schubert)
- USA 1:04:16.10 (Mariah Denigan, Katie Grimes, Charlie Clark, Michael Brinegar)
- France 1:05:05.50 (Oceane Cassignol, Caroline Laure Jouisse, Marc-Antoine Olivier, Logan Fontaine)
- Portugal 1:05:05.70 (Mafalda Rosa, Angelica Andre, Diogo Cardoso, Tiago Campos)
- Brazil 1:05:36.20 (Ana Marcela Cunha, Viviane Jungblut, Pedro Farias, Henrique Figueirinha)
- Argentina 1:07:03.20 (Cecilia Biagioli, Candela Giordanino, Lucas Ezequiel Alba, Franco Ivo Cassini)
- Canada 1:07:03.40 (Emma Finlin, Laila Oravsky, Eric Hedlin, Hau-Li Fan)
- China 1:07:17.20 (Peisin Liu, Jinhou Zhang, Yihan Mao, Xin Xin)
- Mexico 1:07:29.50 (Martha Sandoval, Santiago Gutierrez, Paulina Alanis-Hernandez, Paulo Strehlke Delgado)
- Korea 1:07:55.30 (Sebeom Oh, Jaehun Park, Hae Rim Lee, Jungju Park)
- Czech Republic 1:08:07.10 (Alena Bensova, Lenka Pavlacka, Martin Straka, Matej Kozubek)
- South Africa 1:08:42.00 (Ruen Breytenback, Calian Lotter, Amica de Jager, Rossouw Venter)
- Turkey 1:08:42.90 (Emir Batur Albayrak, Burhanettin Hacisagir, Sezen Akanda Boz, Tuna Erdogan)
- Taipei 1:09:37.30 (Cheng-Chi Cho, Yu-Wen Teng, Pei-Chi Cho, Yi-Chen Wang)
- Hong Kong 1:10:10.30 (Chin Ting Keith Sin, Tsz Yin Nip, Pac Tung Nikita Lam, William Yan Thorley)
- Kazakhstan 1:10:44.20 (Galymzhan Balabek, Diana Taszhanova, Mariya Fedotova, Lev Cherepanov)
- Venezuela 1:10:45.50 (Paola Perez, Ruthsell Guadalupe Aponte Teran, Johndry Segovia, Ronaldo Eduardo Zambrano Sanchez)
- Slovakia 1:11:56.60 (Tomas Peciar, Karolina Ann Valko, Lucia Slamova, Richard Urban)
- Puerto Rico DNS (Christian B. Bayo, Jamarr Andre Bruno, Alondra Itzel Quiles, Mariela Guadamuro)
For more information, visit www.worldaquatics-doha2024.com.
© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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