Italy’s most decorated open water swimmer, Gregorio Paltrinieri, was part of the winning quartet of Ginevra Taddeucci, Andrea Filadelli, and Giulia Berton, while silver was won by France and bronze by Australia.
It was a poetic start to the final day of competition in Golfo Aranci as Team Italy took the first gold of the day in the Mixed 4x1500m Relay.
Racing in front of a home crowd, it was Giulia Berton who took out the race on the first lap. As ever with the Mixed Relay, athletes can swim in whichever order they prefer, which typically results in each lap consisting of both men and women.
In Berton’s case, Mexico’s Paulo Strehlke Delgado and junior athlete Colin Jacobs (USA) were the first two athletes home, while Berton touched in seventh before handing over to Taddeucci.
Tadduecci, who was Overall World Cup Leader in 2025, held the team’s position firm on the second lap, before passing to countrymate - and bronze medal winner in the 10km - Andrea Filadelli.
France’s Sacha Velly - who won the Men’s 10km on day one of competition - carved out a healthy lead for Team France on the second lap. The 21-year-old drew on his sprint speed, which aided his win in yesterday’s race, to put his team in the lead with two laps to go.
What ensued, following the third-lap efforts of Clemence Coccordano and Filadelli, was a battle for the podium between anchor-leg swimmers Paltrinieri, Marc-Antoine Olivier (FRA), Ivan Giovannoni (ITA 2), and Nicholas Sloman (AUS).
Before he reached the first buoy, Paltrinieri had passed leader Olivier, who had an eight-second advantage heading into the final lap. Speaking on this, he said: “That was my plan, I wanted to pass him as soon as I could and then try to hold on to the pace.
“But you know, it's always difficult to do what you're thinking about before the race because it's not always easy to do it. But, I just wanted to stay in front because it's the place that I prefer to be during the race, and then to just manage the race.
“I was feeling Marco [Marc-Antoine] touching my feet, so I knew he was there. And the last 30 to 40 meters, I pushed to the max.”
Speaking on the significance of winning in front of a home crowd, he said:
“In Italy it’s always very special, this is a beautiful race. There were a lot of fans, a lot of people. So, I was just excited to race with my teammates."
“The Italian team is really good, it’s really strong. In the relay, it’s even better because the team is always fun to compete with, so I'm really happy.”
France and Australia Round Out Podium
Team France continued their stellar form, winning silver in the relay event following their three medal haul from yesterday’s individual 10km events (Velly, Olivier, Jouisse).
Having won gold in this event in 2025, they were favourites for a podium result ahead of the race; though the changeable nature of the relay makes the result very difficult to predict.
The team in 2026 was almost exactly the same as the winning side from 2025, with the exception of Marc-Antoine Olivier featuring instead of Logan Fontaine.
Olivier, alongside lead-out swimmer Caroline Jouisse, Velly, and Coccordano held off the late surge from Australia’s Nicholas Sloman, who came charging down the final straight into the finishing shoot.
Sloman anchored the team of Moesha Johnson, Chelsea Gubecka, and Euan Liney, who maintained a top five position throughout the race.
Johnson, who won the Women’s 10km and is in exceptionally good form, was the first female swimmer home after the first lap, splitting 16:24.7.
Superb middle-lap efforts from Gubecka and Liney ensured they went into the final lap in a strong position (fourth), but it fell to Sloman to decide the medal positions. He etched out a lead over the Italy 2 team, who finished fourth, while fifth went to the team from Spain.
Japan, Australia 2, and the United States were sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively, while Switzerland and Mexico finished ninth and tenth.
Action will continue on the third stop of the 2026 Open Water Swimming World Cup with the Women’s and Men’s 3km Knockout Sprint races, which take place at 3:00pm and 5:00pm local time. For details of where to watch, click here.