Australia’s Moesha Johnson became the fifth woman to win the 5km/10km double at the same World Aquatics Championships, taking out the 5km on Friday morning in Sentosa Island in Singapore. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Johnson, who fought tooth and nail with Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci for the second straight final.

Johnson is the first Australian since Melissa Gorman in Rome 2009 to win the World title in the women’s 5km as this is the second gold medal for the green and gold early on at the World Aquatics Championships.

“This is huge for my country,” Johnson said. “I think we're topping the medal table. We've never had back-to-back golds in a competition. I know we've had silvers and bronzes, so this is just historic for my country and I'm just so proud to be setting the standard for everyone.”

Image Source: Gold medallist Moesha Johnson of Team Australia and Silver medallist Ginevra Taddeucci of Team Italy after the Women's 5km Open Water at Singapore 2025 World Aquatics Championships. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Fresh off her silver in the 10km from Wednesday, Taddeucci bumped up against Johnson on the final lap, hoping to become the first Italian women’s 5km champion since 2003 but instead will come home with her second silver, just a second behind Johnson’s golden touch.

“I was really tired today so I wanted to try and guarantee myself a medal as early on as possible and there were just a couple of opportunities with some tight turns,” Johnson said. “If I didn't make the break then, I don't know what would have happened at the end. But once the group behind me was only Ginevra on my feet, it was much ‘easier’, but that was still a really challenging race. The 5k is much more intense so the heat was just felt a lot more today.”

The race water temperature was 30.2 degrees Celsius and waters were calmer than Wednesday’s 10km.

“Mentally, I'm still quite exhausted from dealing with the heat the other day in the 10k race. So the heat is both mentally and physically fatiguing. I think to get through that today, I'm really proud of myself.”

“We fought to the end. It probably didn’t have to be a race that was quite that hard. I've got to back it up again tomorrow so I was hoping to save a little bit of energy, but we really fought to the end, and that makes it really exciting, fun and it makes the win that much more special.”

Image Source: Silver medallist Ginevra Taddeucci of Team Italy (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Taddeucci, who was the European champion earlier this year, won her second career individual medal at the World Aquatics Championships at age 28.

“Today was more simple than the 10km race,” Taddeucci said. “The water was a little bit better, I'm very happy. I tried at the end, in the sprint, but Moesha is a very fast and strong woman. The sprint, the last lap was the toughest. But I'm very happy.”

Image Source: Bronze medallist Ichika Kajimoto of Team Japan poses during the medal ceremony for the Women's 5km Open Water at Singapore 2025 World Aquatics Championships. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Those two distanced themselves from the field as Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto won the bronze some 27 seconds behind. It was a nearly identical finish from Wednesday’s 10km where Monaco’s Lisa Pou came out on top for bronze over Spain’s Maria de Valdes.

After 5,000 meters, it was Kajimoto who came out on top over de Valdes with Pou right behind in sixth with Germany’s Celine Rieder in fifth. This is Japan’s first ever medal in open water swimming at the World Aquatics Championships as Kajimoto, age 21, moved from 30 seconds off the leaders at 1600 meters to the bronze medal. Kajimoto was one of the winners of the 3km knockout race at the World Cup in June and has quietly been rising as one of the top open water swimmers in the world.

Image Source: Silver medallist Ginevra Taddeucci of Team Italy, gold medallist Moesha Johnson of Team Australia and bronze medallist Ichika Kajimoto of Team Japan pose following the Women's 5km Open Water at Singapore 2025 World Aquatics Championships. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

“It feels fantastic. Coming into the race, I did not think it was possible,” Kajimoto said. “Most open water swimmers come from Central Europe and America, but we have a chance in Asia. My hope is that we have more fantastic races and swimmers from Asia.”

Kajimoto is the first Asian woman and second overall to win an open water swimming medal at the World Aquatics Championships since China’s Xin Xin won the 10km in Gwangju 2019

Kajimoto hit the jets on the finish, touching four seconds ahead of de Valdes and five ahead of Rieder.

“I just tried to keep my mind clean and focused and catch up to the rest one by one. During the second pass of the feeding station, I took the drink despite the rest not doing it because it felt too hot. I needed to concentrate because the race was heating up and if I didn’t grab it, I might have lost.”

Hungary’s Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas was also in that lead chase pack, finishing seventh after sitting in the top three with a lap to go.

This was the first 5km at the World Aquatics Championships since Kazan 2015 to not feature Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha on the podium as she finished eighth overall and 68 seconds back  from Johnson. Cunha is the two-time champion from Budapest 2022 and Gwangju 2019 and was the two-time defending bronze medalist from Fukuoka 2023 and Doha 2024.

France’s Ines Delacroix and Italy’s Giulia Gabbrielleschi rounded out the top ten.

Race waters were listed at 30.2 degrees Celsius at the start of the race. 77 women entered the water from 50 different national federations.