The Italian team of Ginevra Taddeucci, Veronica Santoni, Andrea Filadelli, and Gregorio Paltrinieri celebrated a gold medal on Saturday morning in the waters of Golfo Aranci, closing out the mixed 4x1500m relay with a win over the teams from Germany and Hungary.

After coming away with no medals yesterday in the men’s and women’s 10km, the home nation came hungry to change that in the relay, swimming in home waters of Golfo Aranci off the coast of Sardini about an hour-long flight west of the Italian mainland.

Although this is not an Olympic event, it is a source of pride for these open water swimmers, and the Italians have been able to master this event on the world stage, winning the World title in 2023 and silver in the World Aquatics Championships in February 2024. Few nations possess the depth the Italians have in this event, something the country has taken pride in under the guidance of coach Fabrizio Antonelli.

The Brazilians showed out early thanks to the strength of its two women. Italy’s Taddeucci got things started early by holding pace with Brazil’s Vivianne Jungbluth on the opening leg, before Ana Marcela Cunha took control on the second leg on the backs of her comeback gold in the 10km from Friday. Cunha held a slight lead over the likes of Germany’s Leonie Beck and Hungary’s Bettina Fabian before the men took over.

Halfway through, China held the lead thanks to putting Zhang Jinhou second, but that lead evaporated about 400 meters into the third leg where Hungary’s David Betlehem took over with Andrea Filadelli on his feet, and Brazil’s Matheus Melecchi within reach.

Filadelli closed well on the third leg and it set up a race with the likes of Paltrinieri and Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky, two of the last three World champions in the 10km. Paltrinieri and Rasovszky eyed each other the entire 1500 meters of the anchor leg, keeping Brazil’s Lucas Machado on their feet but seemed unaware of Germany’s Niklas Frach closing frantically behind them. Frach pulled even with about 400 meters left and the three approached the finish chute together with nothing between them.

The Italian fans showed out this morning in Golfo Aranci and lifted Paltrinieri into the finish, giving the Italians the gold medal at 1:06:58.80 in a photo finish over Germany (1:06:59.80) and Hungary (1:07:00.10). The Brazilians faded to fourth at 1:07:22.00 as the second Italian team finished fifth overall (1:08:28.40) ahead of China (1:09:25.10).

This is the last World Cup stop before the Olympic Games on the 8th and 9th of August. The World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2024 series resumes in October in Setubal, Portugal.

Parting Scene | Arriverderci Golfo Aranchi, See You in 2025