In a race that looked to be going the way of the veterans, the Italian broke late and scored the upset on Friday morning in the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup in Ibiza, Spain.
For about 8000 meters, it appeared that the men’s 10km on the first day of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup in Ibiza, Spain was going to go the way of either the Olympic champion Kristof Rasovszky, the legendary Gregorio Paltrinieri, or the Olympic silver medalist Oliver Klemet.
Those three, along with the French duo of Marc-Antoine Olivier and Logan Fontaine, set the pace early in the race and traded the lead back and forth over the first five of six laps. But as the last lap commenced, strategy and conditioning came into play as the Italians took over late, but not the usual suspects.
In fact, this movie hadn’t been written yet. It was Andrea Filadelli who broke from the pack late with the 24-year-old dragging along his teammates Dario Verani and Giuseppe Ilario into the top three. Aside from a couple LEN Open Water Swimming Cup leg races, Filadelli had never won a major 10K race, having finished sixth at the first World Cup stop in Soma Bay in February.
“This race is very important for me as this was my first time winning a gold medal at the international level,” Filadelli, who trains with coach Fabrizio Antonelli, said. “I swim every day with a group and my teammates – Gregorio, Dario, Dominico (Acerenza) – to win another race for our team makes me very satisfied, very happy.”
The water temperature was reported to be on the cooler side - 18.33 degrees Celsius at the start of the race, causing the race to be much quicker with more swimmers in body suits.
“I was focused on my race, but I am very happy with the performances of my teammates,” Verani, who also trains with Antonelli, said. “This competition was very difficult to swim in these conditions, but we were prepared and (we) train in these conditions. It’s a good result for us, for Italy.”
It was a big moment for Antonelli’s stacked training group based out of Ostia.
“We were hoping for a performance like we saw today from the boys,” Antonelli said. “We were also expecting Greg to be right up there for the win; unfortunately, he lost his cap and goggles in the last stretch, so he couldn’t see and lost the train. I’m really glad they collected some good results because they are a hard-working group of athletes. I feel this is really well deserved and Team Italy did great in the men’s race. They really played fair.
“The feeling of growing up together as athletes, training together and coming together as a team is really showing itself. This is what we try to do, and these athletes are really capitalising on this. This may still be an individual sport, but when you can see a team of athletes come together and feel strong together like this – I really love this.
“It was a really big field with a really high level – we had all the medallists from the Paris 2024 Olympics here. This made for an exciting race, right from the beginning.”
Ilario, age 21, trains with a different group in Napoli as he won a surprising bronze medal here - his first international medal since he won bronze at the 2022 World Juniors in the 10K.
“I’m really proud, really happy,” Ilario said. “I didn’t expect this. And I didn’t expect Italy to sweep the podium. But during the race, especially at the end, I was feeling really good. When I saw my teammates go in a different direction (heading to the finish line), I understood this was a faster line to take. This was a good strategic decision we took.”
Filadelli’s win here puts in question who will ultimately get the ticket to the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore come July.
“I think I have made the team for the European Championships, but I still don’t know about Singapore,” Filadelli said. “This week and (the) European Championships will decide who competes for Italy at the Worlds in Singapore.”
“I hope I will go to Singapore,” Verani, age 30, said. “We have a very strong team and this is a big, big season with many very important races. It’s so important to stay focused on the big goals for this season.” Verani last won gold at the World Cup in Hong Kong, China last year.
The next European Cup race will be May 3 in Cyprus.
With Verani and Ilario following in silver and bronze, a whole host of guys came crashing into the wall at the same time a few seconds later - ten swimmers were separated by a second at the finish, needing to rely on the instant replay cameras and photo finish equipment to decipher who finished where.
Ultimately it was France’s Olivier in fourth, a tenth ahead of American Joey Tepper in fifth with another Italian, Marcello Guidi, in sixth.
“Every time it felt like I found a good place, someone else would find the space immediately beside me and there’d be plenty of incidental contact,” Tepper said. “It was crowded, which makes sense when the conditions are like they were today when it's really hard for the race to separate. You’d really feel this around the buoy turns and in the feeding zone.
“You just try to keep calm, keep breathing and know that I have a lot of speed that I maybe didn’t have earlier in my career. I feel really confident now in my ability to finish.”
France’s Fontaine and Hungary’s Rasovszky were three and four tenths behind them, respectively, while Switzerland’s Christian Schreiber and Italy’s Vincenzo Caso rounded out the top ten.
American Dylan Gravley finished just ahead of one of the pre-race favourites, Sacha Velly of France, and Czechia’s Martin Straka as they rounded out that chase pack.
Pre-race favourites Paltrinieri, Klemet and David Betlehem finished 15th, 25th, and 34th, respectively. Paltrinieri was only ten seconds behind the gold medalist while Klemet was 21 seconds back. Betlehem was well off the pace, finishing over a minute and a half after the leaders.
Filadelli now leads the overall points standings with 1250 points over France’s Olivier (1150) and Fontaine (1100). France’s Emile Mesmacque was the top finishing junior of the day in 22nd.
The Ibiza stop of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup will continue tomorrow with the introduction of the 3km Knockout Sprints, featuring elimination races of 1500m, 1000m, and 500 meters. The women’s race will begin at 9:00 a.m. local time with the men’s race at 11:00 a.m. local.