Japan picked up the first ever gold medal in the 3km knockout sprints at the World Aquatics Championships as Ichika Kajimoto won in a wild finish.
It was a race that was expected to be strategic and thrilling and it certainly lived up to the billing. On Saturday morning on Sentosa Island in Singapore, Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto bided her time perfectly in winning the gold medal in the 3km knockout sprint, an event running its maiden voyage at the World Aquatics Championships.
56 women were separated in two heats to race 1500 meters with the top ten advancing in each heat to race 1000 meters. The top ten finishers from that heat competed in a winner-take-all 500 meter sprint that was every bit as chaotic as one could hope.
Kajimoto, who lost her cap in the middle of the final 500m, rode the waves of the leaders and snuck up alongside them in the finishing chute. Training partners Moesha Johnson of Australia and Isabel Gose of Germany traded the lead back and forth, but got caught up racing each other, allowing the likes of Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci to move alongside them.
“I lost my cap and I could not see my peripherals, but I just tried my hardest and fastest. It was a very good result,” Kajimoto said.
This was the point where Kajimoto, age 21, flew under the radar to find her line, take advantage of the clean water, and ride that momentum into the finish. Even with her cap falling off, Kajimoto sped into the wall, claiming the inaugural gold medal in the event.
She already won bronze in yesterday’s 5km behind the likes of Johnson and Taddeucci, and was the World Cup champion in Portugal in June in what was then a surprise finish.
After the gold here on Saturday, she’s no longer considered an upstart and has emerged as one of the best open water swimmers in the world. She is just the second woman from Asia to win a World title in open water swimming.
“In Japan, open water is a lesser-known sport but this time I was able to achieve eighth place in the 10km, third place in the 5km and now champion in the 3km knockout,” Kajimoto said. “Now more people (in Japan) are aware of open water swimming. This is very important to both me and the Japanese swimming federation.”
The rest of the field bunched up behind Kajimoto to scramble to get onto the podium.
Taddeucci won her third silver of the championships at age 28, while Johnson and Hungary’s Bettina Fabian could not be separated and wound up with a shared bronze medal.
“It’s the best moment, it’s totally next level,” Taddeucci said. “For me, I felt I wasn’t really in this race; this is not my type of race. This really isn’t my race, normally I’m slower and prefer longer distance swimming like the 5km swim. I’m not very fast in such short sprints but I’m very happy with where I finished.”
The women fought tooth and nail to get to the wall, getting boxed in and rubbing elbows with many of the swimmers as it was a scrum to get to the finishing pad.
“That last lap, I literally had water in my goggles, I had elbows in my ribs,” Johnson said. “We’re all just fighting for it, everyone wanted it. But that’s this sport; I hope people really enjoyed watching that, because that’s what this event is about. It’s about the craziness and the intensity of what we actually do – condensing a 10km and a 5km into an absolute all-out sprint.”
“The last 500m was like the fastest I’ve ever swam in my entire life,” Fabian said. “The last 150 meters were horrific. Everyone was swimming next to each other trying to control our strokes, someone was trying to push me behind them and in the last five metres I think the strongest-minded person was able to touch the panel first. And I was very happy that Moesha and I were both in third place.”
This is Johnson’s third medal of these championships at age 27 while this is Fabian’s first career medal at the World Championships at age 20. Fabian was choking back tears during her post-race interview.
“I’ve been through an injury in the past two months,” Fabian said. “I wasn’t going to this World Championships in the first place because it was so bad. Every practice hurt, and it didn’t get better. I’m just so happy that I didn’t give up and I’m able to stand on the podium with the best swimmers of all-time. I’m just so thankful for everyone.”
Germany’s Lea Boy made a move late and appeared to be on her way to what would have been her second individual Worlds medal, but she finished tied for fifth with fellow German Gose, just two tenths off the podium.
Monaco’s Lisa Pou was two seconds away from a podium finish in touching seventh ahead of Margarita Ershova, Spain’s Angela Martinez Guillen and Kseniia Misharina.
The water temperature was reported at 30.4 degrees Celsius. The open water swimming portion of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships will finish Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. local time.