Fresh off the backs of an Olympic cycle, the world’s best juniors will take to the waters of Alghero, Italy off the island of Sardinia this week for the 2024 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming Junior World Championships.
The world’s best up and coming talent will be competing in three events across four days, beginning with the 10km on Thursday, and continuing with the individual 5km and 7.5km races on Friday.
Two years ago in Seychelles, the best junior swimmers raced to titles at the Open Water World Juniors with future Olympic medalist David Betlehem of Hungary winning the 10km gold medal by over four minutes ahead of the silver medalist. Future World Championships medalist Katie Grimes of the United States won the 7.5km, while Bettina Fabian, who was fifth in the 10km in Paris, won the junior 10km title two years ago at those championships.
This meet has allowed athletes to create a pathway to future success on the sport’s biggest stage, and some future medalists for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and/or 2032 Brisbane Olympics could emerge from the field this weekend.
With the 10km races starting off on Thursday featuring the best swimmers ages 17 - 19, the pre-race favorites look to be Mexico’s Paulo Strehlke Delgado and Hungary’s Hunor Kovacs-Seres on the men’s side, along with France’s Clemence Coccordano and Italy’s Emma Micheletti for the women’s race.
Two years ago when these swimmers raced the 7.5km at this meet, Kovacs-Seres won the title over Strehlke Delgado as those two will battle once more to close out their junior careers.
Strehlke Delgado competed in Paris last month at the Olympics where he was 12th at age 18.
At the past Olympics in Paris, Hungary won the gold and bronze medal in the men’s race, showing a great strength for the nation in the open water venue, something Kovacs-Seres will look to continue as the attention starts to turn to the 2025 Worlds in Singapore and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
France’s Sacha Velly, who won the European Junior title this year, will also be one of the favorites for gold after France came off hosting a successful Olympic Games in Paris. Velly was also the top finishing junior at last year’s Open Water Swimming World Cup.
Brazil’s Matheus Melechhi, who is currently leading the junior rankings in the Open Water Swimming World Cup this year, will also be a pre-race favorite as he was sixth two years ago at this competition.
Poland’s Piotr Wozniak, who won silver at this year’s Europeans, and United States’s Luke Ellis, who ranked as high as 29th in the world this year in the pool 1500m, could also factor into the medals this year in Alghero.
Wozniak also competed at this year’s Paris Olympics at age 18 as he finished 22nd overall in his Games debut.
Ellis has been tabbed as a rising star in the United States and hails from the same club in Las Vegas that produced Olympic medalists Katie Grimes and Erica Sullivan at the last two Games, while Wozniak was the top finishing junior swimmer at the first stop of the 2024 Open Water Swimming World Cup back in March.
For the women’s race, Canada’s Emma Finlin, who is ranked 58th in the world this year in the 1500m, and Turkey’s Burcunaz Narin, who won silver two years ago in the 7.5km, will also factor into the medals this week.
Finlin finished 23rd in Paris in the 10km as the only junior participant in the field and will team up with teammate Julia Strojnowska, who had a successful showing at this month’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships, for Team Canada.
Turkey’s Narin was second two years ago in the 7.5km and will certainly push the aforementioned European duo of Coccordano and Micheletti, as well as American Claire Stuhlmacher, who was fourth two years ago.
For the 7.5km on Friday, Olympian Claire Weinstein of the United States is the pre-race favorite as well as Turkey’s Tuna Erdogan, while the men’s race is expected to be led by the likes of Italy’s Davide Grossi in his home nation as well as Turkey’s Emir Batur Albayrak and Japan’s Kazushi Imafuku.
The men’s 10km will start the championships Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. local time with the women’s race following at 12:30 p.m. The women’s and men’s 5km will start Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. local time with the 7.5km for both men and women following at 11:30 a.m.