In a similar result to the Olympic race in the Seine, Moesha Johnson pulled Ginevra Taddeucci with her to the finish of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup 2025 season opener in Somabay, Egypt as the two were 16 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
Since winning Olympic silver in August last year, Australia’s Moesha Johnson has been on a tear, winning her second straight World Cup race on Friday morning in Soma Bay, Egypt in the Red Sea. It was the first international race for 2025, and the water temperature at the start of the day was 21 Celsius.
Johnson, who was ranked 11th in the first ever Open Water world rankings, bided her time perfectly, winning the race at 2:06:34.60, over Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci (2:06:37.60) and Australian teammate Chelsea Gubecka (2:06:51.00).
Johnson and Taddeucci shared the podium in Paris as they were also well and truly in front of the rest of the field in the Seine, nearly 30 seconds in front of the chase pack.
Johnson swims with coach Bernd Berkhahn in Germany and will represent Australia alongside Gubecka at this summer’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
“That was a pretty rough race,” Johnson said. “Tough conditions with a tough pack of girls – all really tough competitors. I don’t have a lot of words for that but tough.
“Just testing my limits a little bit,” Johnson said. “I came off a really strong year and I just want to have my own momentum. It was definitely a challenge for myself with that wind. There was not much rhythm with the stroke.”
Taddeucci followed up her Olympic bronze with another medal here.
“That wind was so difficult, so windy out there,” Taddeucci said. “And the sea was really full of waves. This was terrible, but it was a good race and I am so happy.
“I follow Moesha; she’s the strongest woman in the world. That’s all I thought about, ‘follow Moesha.’ She’s the best woman. She’s very fast. Those last three laps were very, very fast. It’s the first competition of 2025 and I am just so very happy. I haven’t had so much training yet, coming off a year that had the Olympics in Paris.”
Gubecka, age 26, trains in Brisbane and returns to the podium for the first time since the 2024 Worlds in Doha 12 months ago.
“I was surprised to hang on for so long,” Gubecka said. “I’ve only been back in the water properly for four weeks. I had a really great break post-Paris. That was a really disappointing event for me. To be able to come back and be in the mix – obviously, Moesha is just somebody who we are chasing – I’m fortunate that she’s an Australian like me. Not that we work together, but, it’s just nice knowing there’s another competitor from my country there.
“This is my favourite, the Red Sea. My first win at a World Cup was in the Red Sea, so to be back on the podium here is just unbelievable.”
The margin between the top three and the pack was wider today, with Germany’s Isabel Gose (2:08:35.90) and Spain’s Angela Martinez Guillen (2:08:36.00) in fourth and fifth. This is one of the first times Gose has swum on the international stage in the open water venue as she was the bronze medalist in Paris in the 1500m freestyle and has been one of the top distance pool swimmers in the world the last four years.
Germany had two more in the top ten with Jeannette Spiwoks (2:08:37.70) in sixth and Lea Boy (2:08:43.40) in eighth. Poland’s Klaudia Tarasiewicz (2:08:40.50), France’s Caroline Jouisse (2:08:44.00) and Hungary’s Bettina Fabian (2:08:44.20) rounded out the top ten.