After three competitive legs with Australia, the Germans pulled away on the final 1500 meters to win the team relay at the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup.
It was a race, and then it wasn’t. For 4500 meters, the Australians and the Germans were going back and forth in the mixed 4x1500m relay on the last day of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup in the waters of the Red Sea off the coast of Soma Bay, Egypt.
But when Germany’s anchor Florian Wellbrock entered the water two seconds behind Australia’s Kyle Lee, it was practically over from the start. Wellbrock, fresh off a win in yesterday’s 10K, kicked away from Lee and won by 30 seconds over the Australians.
The German team of Isabel Gose, Jeannette Spiwoks, Oliver Klemet and Wellbrock won gold to open 2025 at 1:10:10.90 as their pursuit for team gold at this summer’s World Championships in Singapore begins. Today, the team took down the last two World Champions - Australia (Doha 2024) and Italy (Fukuoka 2023).
“I’m pretty happy,” Wellbrock said. “It wasn’t easy to beat Australia and Italy, both are World champions of the team relay. We have a strong team - Isabel, Oli and me are coming from the pool so we are having some fun in open water. I think our relay was too strong today.”
Gose, Klemet, and Wellbrock all train together in Magdeburg for coach Bernd Berkhahn, while Spiwoks swims in Essen. Gose is in her open water debut here as a strong pool swimmer - she won Olympic bronze in Paris in the 1500m freestyle. This weekend, she showed out well, finishing fourth in yesterday’s 10K, and looks to be another formidable piece to a strong German team.
“It was really tough,” Gose said. “The conditions were unusual for me. I come from the 800m and 1500m in the pool, but it was a nice experience. When you’re swimming (in open water), the conditions are pretty different to the pool conditions and I think the experience in open water is really important.”
“It was my wish that she was coming to open water,” Wellbrock said of Gose. “I had a long discussion with her back in Germany and I think she is so important for the relay for Singapore. And this was the first try for her and it worked so well.”
“He was like, ‘OK we need you for the relay!’” Gose said of her conversation with Wellbrock. “I was like, ‘OK, let’s do this!’”
The Australians, the defending World Champions from Doha 2024, won the silver here with Moesha Johnson, Chelsea Gubecka, Nicholas Sloman, and Kyle Lee at 1:10:41.10, comfortably ahead of the third place Italians.
Johnson and Gubecka, coming off a 1-3 finish in yesterday’s 10K, set the pace on the front half, leading the nations that led off with two women, but they didn’t give their men enough room to hold off Klemet and Wellbrock, who have both made the podium at the Olympics in the 10K.
On the third leg, Klemet stayed on Sloman’s feet, letting the Australian do the work before he scooted by him leading into the finish. Sloman was able to fight back and give Lee the lead, but Wellbrock, who is ‘back’ with a vengeance, showed his pool speed in dominating fashion.
“We knew Germany had a really strong team, and all their swimmers had amazing races, and all the people in my team had amazing races,” Lee said. “Florian was just too strong on that final relay. As soon as we turned, he took advantage of that wind and I wasn’t able to hold on to him but I am happy with the team’s overall performance.”
Australia had all four of its members from the gold medal-winning team at last year’s Worlds in Doha.
“We’ve got the Doha win behind us,” Johnson said. “It’s something we are quite passionate about, this relay. But in Doha, Germany didn’t put Florian Wellbrock on the end so I think that is always a game changer for Germany. We have six months ahead of us, almost, to Worlds so it’s something we are going to work really hard on. We will have a look at what we can do to maybe bring us closer because if Kyle is close, he has a magic touch on the finish.”
Italy won the bronze and was represented by Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Ginevra Taddeucci, Gregorio Paltrinieri and Luca De Tullio.
“I just started swimming at the end of January so my preparation wasn’t complete,” Paltrinieri said. “I thought the 1500m would have been better than the 10K yesterday. For the 10K, I don’t have enough preparation, it’s just one month. It wasn’t perfect yesterday, but I knew today I could have done more.
“I thought my best position now was the third (leg), and Luca De Tullio is in his first appearance for open water, and he wanted to try to close, so we decided like that. It was a good relay. We are strong, but we probably have to fix something to compete with the best teams - Germany and Australia.
Germany and Australia got over 40 seconds in front of the Italians on the front half, leaving Paltrinieri and De Tullio not nearly any room to get into the race as the Italian team finished over a minute ahead of fourth-place finisher Brazil (1:12.57.90) and fifth place finisher France (1:12:58.30).
The official water temperature reading was 21.4 degrees Celsius.