Florian Wellbrock, winner of the men’s 10km title on Friday, claimed his second victory in as many days by driving his team to victory ahead of Italy (ITA 1) and France.

The German quartet, which also featured Leah Boy, Jeanette Spiwoks and Arne Schubert, finished in a one hour, seven minutes and 13.5 seconds.

“The relay is always a team effort and I’m so happy with the team gold today,” Wellbrock told World Aquatics.

“It’s personal for me with two golds at this competition, but the relay is always special.”

The World Cup season-finale took place as part of the third-edition of the NEOM Beach Games which also included contests in triathlon, 3x3 basketball, sport climbing, beach soccer and mountain biking.

How The Race Played Out

Typically, one of the most captivating elements of the mixed relay events is witnessing the dynamics created by varied line-ups, with men and women racing against one another.

Interestingly and for the first time this season, each team decided to field their two female athletes first, followed by their two males, in a reverse of what you would traditionally see for mixed relay events in the pool.

With the knowledge that Brazil were fielding two junior male athletes later in the race 2024 overall World Cup champion Ana Marcela Cunha knew she needed to give her nation a strong start, if they were to be in contention later in the closing stages.

She led out with World Cup runner-up Leah Boy (GER), but it was soon the Japanese swimmer Ichika Kajimoto who would make a break from the pack.

Boy would fight back to touch just a fraction ahead of her rival from Japan, with ‘ITA 2’ in third, but less than 11 seconds separated the 11 teams.

The other Italian team, ‘ITA 1’, had trailed in tenth, but Taddeucci made up that distance and sprinted to the front within the opening stages of the second leg.

This 1500m stretch saw four nations put distance between themselves and the rest of the pack, with ‘ITA 1’ edging the advantage at the halfway stage ahead of Germany (+1.3 secs), with Japan and Brazil close-by.

The French, one of the pre-race favourites, were 26.7 seconds off the pace, but possessed NEOM World Cup 10km runner-up and World junior champion Sacha Velly, as well as 2024 overall World Cup champion Marc-Antoine Olivier, on their final two legs.

At the front Marcelo Guidi led out and tried a host of different tactics to break free of his ‘stalker’, 18-year-old Arne Schubert (GER).

The young German did a fantastic job of keeping close to the Italian champion, with his mission simply to give six-time world champion Florian Wellbrock the best chance in the final 1500m, but he did much more than that.

Schubert’s earlier energy conservation enabled him to fight ahead of Guidi and give the German team a 1.4 sec lead.

In open water swimming that is an incredibly small margin, but Wellbrock is the master of swimming in clear water and he began to pull clear of Dario Verani (ITA) early in the final leg.

A strong third 1500m from Riku Takaki had seen Japan move into a clear third, but just over 10 seconds back were the fast-approaching French team after a rapid leg from Velly.

At the front, Germany would ultimately ease to victory as Wellbrock gave further evidence of his return to form, touching the finish pad first for the second time in 24 hours, after missing out on individual open water medals at Doha 2024 and Paris 2024.

Verani ensured Italy would take a comfortable second, but there were no such certainties in the battle for bronze.

Olivier, as expected, made up the deficit quickly and chased down his Japanese opponent Kaito Tsujimori, but the 18-year-old would not give up without a fight.

He kept close to the Frenchman’s feet, before Olivier, sensing Tsujomori was using drafting to reduce his effort, dropped back in a surprise tactical switch.

It worked, allowing the Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist to conserve enough energy for a sprint finish which helped France claim the final podium position.

NEOM saw the German team claim their first 4x1500m Mixed Relay win of 2024, following bronze in the opening leg in Soma Bay (EGY), and silver at the second leg in Golfo Aranci (ITA).

What Is Next For The Field?

Several of the field, including Wellbrock (GER) and Olympic 10km silver medallist Moesha Johnson (AUS), will return to action next month for the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest, Hungary, which takes place from 10-15 December.

For others, after a festive break they will begin their training programme for the 2025 season which will include the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore which will take place between 11 July and 3 August.