France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier and Logan Fontaine claimed the 1-2 finish in the men’s 10km, a sign of good things to come for them in a home Olympics in 11 weeks time. The French duo, who also went 1-2 in the 5km earlier this year at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, will be the French representatives in this event at the Paris Olympics this summer.

Hungary’s David Betlehem set the pace early to lead through the first of six laps on the course, trying to break any of the pretenders early as he took the first 1666 meters in 17:33. Betlehem was joined on lap two by teammate Kristof Rasovszky, the World Champion from earlier this year, along with the Australian duo of Thomas Raymond and Nicholas Sloman.

As the race stretched out, the Hungarians stayed within a touch of the leaders as the Australians took over on lap two, while Italy’s Marcello Guidi tried to lead the charge on lap three before he was taken over by Betlehem again, who was going for the available sprint points.

Betlehem took advantage of his lead at the halfway point and seemingly tried to break the pack on lap four, holding a lead of about two meters through the end of lap five.

Lingering in the shadows on lap five was the French duo of Logan Fontaine and Marc-Antoine Olivier. After scoring a 1-2 finish at the World Championships this year in February in the 5km, the two Frenchman seem to be peaking at the right time 11 weeks out from a home Olympics in the Seine River in Paris. Fontaine, age 25, stayed on Betlehem’s feet for the entirety of lap five with Olivier in tow in a fight with Rasovszky for the third spot.

By the start of lap six, Fontaine drew even with Betlehem and Olivier stayed on the Hungarian’s feet. As the finish line neared, Betlehem held his own as he fended off challenges thrown from the likes of Sloman and Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe. At around the 9km mark, Rasovszky took over the lead, creating his own line. After trading the lead back and forth with Olivier and Fontaine, Olivier took the lead for good with about 300 meters to go.

As the lead pack entered the finish chute, Olivier had it all wrapped up, reaching the pad at 1:50:03.00, with Fontaine completing the 1-2 finish with silver at 1:50:04.40, out-touching Rasovszky (1:50:04.50). Betlehem finished just off the medals in fourth at 1:50:04.80.

Italy’s Andrea Filadelli (1:50:08.40), the home nation’s highest finisher, was fifth, ahead of Israel’s Matan Roditi (1:50:08.70) and Great Britain’s Pardoe (1:50:09.90).

Ana Marcela Cunha Back on Top

It had been nearly two full years since the last time Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha had won an open water race internationally, dating back to the 2022 Marathon Swim World Series stop in France in July of that year. On Friday morning in Golfo Aranci, Cunha, age 32, found herself back on top, winning the 10km at the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup over the likes of teammate Vivianne Jungblut and last year’s World champion Leonie Beck.

This has been the end of a long climb back to the top for Cunha, who underwent shoulder surgery towards the end of 2022 after winning the Olympic gold in 2021 and winning two World titles in 2022. After finishing fifth in the 10km at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, and fourth earlier this year in February, it appeared that there was a changing of the guard in open water swimming.

But on Friday morning in Golfo Aranci, Cunha changed that narrative 11 weeks out from the Olympic race in Paris.

The race was paced early by the likes of Hungary’s Bettina Fabian, Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci and Brazil’s Jungbluth. The pace was not as hot as the men’s race held earlier in the day and that caused a lot of lead changes to occur over the front half. Through 5000 meters, Jungbluth led the likes of Australia’s Bianca Crisp and Japan’s Airi Ebina.

Portugal’s Angelica Andre swam to the front of the pack on lap four, building on her bronze from this year’s World Aquatics Championships, and held the lead steadily over the likes of Crisp and Jungbluth through the middle of lap five.

Ginevra Taddeucci of Italy and Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands emerged with the lead on lap five. They overtook Andre to gather the available sprint points on the odd laps. They took the pack into the final lap as van Rouwendaal took the lead.

After sitting near the back of the pack for the front half, van Rouwendaal seemed to take control into the finish, holding a sizeable lead and fighting off any challengers on the final lap.

But with about 700 meters to go, Germany’s Beck and Brazil’s Cunha made their moves, overtaking the likes of France’s Caroline Jouisse and Brazil’s Jungbluth in the chase pack, breaching the lead of van Rouwendaal. Beck took the lead with 500 meters to go and tried to distance herself away from van Rouwendaal’s line. With about 100 meters to go, Cunha took over the lead and it was the same movie all over again - the race coming down to Cunha, Beck, and van Rouwendaal, the last three major champions in the 10km.

Cunha formed her own line on the outside, and descended into the finish with her first gold in two years at 2:02:00.70. Jungbluth followed Cunha’s line, stealing the silver at 2:02:02.00, ahead of Beck (2:02:02.20) and van Rouwendaal (2:02:02.30).

France’s Jouisse (2:02:04.70), Hungary’s Fabian (2:02:04.80), Japan’s Ebina (2:02:04.90), Italy’s Taddeucci (2:02:05.00), and Portugal’s Andre (2:02:05.40) were right behind in the chase pack, with Mariah Denigan (2:02:07.10) of the United States rounding out the top ten.

The race water temperature was reported to be at 19 degrees Celsius at the start of the men’s race. This is the last World Cup stop before the Olympic Games on the 8th and 9th of August.  Tomorrow comes the Mixed 4x1500m Relay before the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2024 series resumes in October in Setubal, Portugal.