79 men will race in the highly competitive 10 km world championship marathon swim held on Sunday, February 4th in the Old Doha Port in Qatar.

It will be the first World Aquatics Championships held in the Middle East and will kick off the first week of the Championships with a slew of open water races (see schedule below). 2,600 athletes from 197 countries will compete in 75 medal events in six aquatic sports.

• Saturday, February 3rd is the women’s 10 km marathon swim and 2024 Paris Olympic qualification race
• Sunday, February 4th is the men’s 10 km marathon swim and 2024 Paris Olympic qualification race
• Wednesday, February 7th is the women’s and men’s 5 km open water swim
• Thursday, February 8th is the mixed 4x1500m relay

The first two races will be tremendously competitive, arguably the most intense race during the Olympic quadrennial, because the marathon swimmers will be fighting for the remaining 19 spots at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games 10 km marathon swim.

While Florian Wellbrock of Germany, Kristóf Rasovszsky of Hungary, and Oliver Klemet of Germany have already qualified for the Paris Olympics with a 1-2-3 finish at the 2023 World Championships, Olympic champion Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy and plenty of other Olympic swimmers will vie for the coveted spots including Matan Roditi (of Israel, Athanasios Kynigakis of Greece, Marc-Antoine Olivier of France, Hau-Li Fan of Canada, Taishin Minamide of Japan, Phillip Seidler of Namibia, William Yan Thorley of Hong Kong, Tiago Campos (of Portugal, Hector Pardoe of Great Britain, Daniel Delgadillo of Mexico, and David Farinango of Ecuador. Top echelon swimmers like Domenico Acerenza of Italy will undoubtably be in the mix for a podium position.

The French men could be competing in a domestic race within the international competition. Logan Fontaine and Marc-Antoine Olivier could – and should – both finish in the top pack to qualify for the Paris Olympics – which would be a sweet finish for French administrator Stéphane Lecat and the rest of the French Swimming Federation.

The race is expected to start off fast…and get faster as the race goes along. The finish – if previous Olympic qualification races are any guide – will be incredibly close among the top 25 competitors. Every whistle warning from the head referee, every turn around the buoys, every feeding station stop, every yellow card, every red card, every change of positioning in the lead and trailing packs will have an impact on the ultimate 19 Olympic finalists to be selected on Saturday.

American media creator Mike Lewis – who usually has a camera in hand – will instead have a microphone in his hand and will be calling the play-by-play for both the men’s and women’s races at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

Entrants for the 2024 World Aquatics World Championship 10 km race include:

1. Domenico Acerenza (Italy, 29)
2. Lucas Ezequiel Alba (Argentina, 23)
3. Emir Batur Albayrak (Turkey, 16)
4. Daniil Androssov (Kazakhstan, 20)
5. Christian Bayo (Puerto Rico, 32)
6. David Betlehem (Hungary, 20)
7. Ruan Breytenbach (South Africa, 21)
8. Michael Brinegar (USA, 24)
9. Jamarr Andre Bruno (Puerto Rico, 18)
10. Tiago Campos (Brazil, 24)
11. Diogo Cardoso (Portugal, 22)
12. Franco Ivo Cassini (Argentina, 30)
13. Lev Cherepanov (Kazakhstan, 22)
14. Cheng-Chi Cho (Taipei, 25)
15. Pei-Chi Cho (Taipei, 23)
16. Asterios Dalgogiannis (Greece, 26)
17. Rayven de Los Santos (Dominican Republic, 23)
18. Daniel Delgadillo (Mexico, 34)
19. Theo Druenne (Mongolia, 18)
20. Diego Dulieu (Honduras, 19)
21. Ilias El Fallaki (Morocco, 17)
22. Esteban Enderica Salgado (Ecuador, 33)
23. Hau-Li Fan (Canada, 26)
24. Pedro Farias (Brazil, 21)
25. David Farinango (Ecuador, 23)
26. Henrique Figueirinha (Brazil, 23)
27. Logan Fontaine (France, 24)
28. Kaiki Furuhata (Japan, 24)
29. Ido Gal (Israel, 23)
30. Burhanettin Hacisagir (Turkey, 17)
31. Eric Hedlin (Canada, 30)
32. Jan Hercog (Austria, 25)
33. Bartosz Kapala (Poland, 17)
34. Oliver Klemet (Germany, 21)
35. Matej Kozubek (Czech Republic, 27)
36. Athanasios Kynigakis (Greece, 25)
37. Kyle Lee (Australia, 21)
38. Peixin Lee (China, 18)
39. Henre Louw (South Africa, 21)
40. Artyom Lukasevits (Singapore, 19)
41. Taishin Minamide (Japan, 27)
42. Marin Mogic (Croatia, 25)
43. Juan Manuel Morales (Columbia, 23)
44. Juan Diego Nunez Barreras (Dominican Republic, 18)
45. Sebeom Oh (South Korea, 20)
46. Marc-Antoine Olivier (France, 27)
47. Maximiliano Paccot (Uruguay, 27)
48. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy, 29)
49. Hector Pardoe (Great Britain, 22)
50. Jaehun Park (South Korea, 23)
51. Jaan Pasko (Estonia, 17)
52. Nike Peterlin (Slovenia, 17)
53. Alejandro Plaza (Bolivia, 17)
54. Afiah Fadian Prawira (India, 26)
55. Guillem Pujol (Spain, 26)
56. Ivan Puskovitch (USA, 22)
57. Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary, 26)
58. Santiago Reyes (Guatemala, 24)
59. Tobias Patrick Robinson (Great Britain, 27)
60. Matan Roditi (Israel, 25)
61. Jeison Rojas (Costa Rica, 20)
62. Christian Schreiber (Switzerland, 21)
63. Johndry Segovia (Venezuela, 36)
64. Philip Seidler (Namibia, 25)
65. Chin Ting Keith Sin (Hong Kong, 29)
66. Anurag Singh (India, 21)
67. Nicholas Sloman (Australia, 26)
68. Martin Straka (Czech Republic, 23)
69. Paulo Strehlke Delgado (Mexico, 18)
70. Sheldon Jon Heng Tan (Singapore, 18)
71. Ratthawit Thammananthachote (Thailand, 21)
72. William Yan Thorley (Hong Kong, 21)
73. Logan Vanhuys (Belgium, 26)
74. Diego Vera (Venezuela, 27)
75. Florian Wellbrock (Germany, 26)
76. Navaphat Wongcharoen (Thailand, 26)
77. Piotr Wozniak (Poland, 18)
78. Adrian Gustavo Ywanaga Papi (Peru, 19)
79. Jinhou Zhang (China, 21)

For more information, visit www.worldaquatics-doha2024.com.

For the list of 72 starters in the women’s race, visit here.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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