Germany Pull Away On Final Leg To Win Team Relay At World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup

For 4500 metres, the Australians and the Germans went back and forth in the waters of the Red Sea off the coast of Soma Bay, Egypt.

Kyle Lee held a two-second lead over Florian Wellbrock going into the final leg before the winner of the 10k race kicked away to claim victory by 30 seconds ahead of Australia and Italy.

l-r: Florian Wellbrock, Oliver Klemet, Isabel Gose & Jeanette Spiwoks: Photo Courtesy: World Aquatics

Wellbrock was joined by Isabel Gose – the Olympic 1500 bronze medallist who was fourth in the women’s race – Jeanette Spiwoks and Olympic silver medallist Oliver Klemet as they posted 1:10:10.90 for victory.

Moesha Johnson and Chelsea Gubecka – first and third in the women’s individual race – swam the first two legs for Australia followed by Nicholas Sloman and Lee as they posted 1:10:41.10.

The Italian quartet of Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Ginevra Taddeucci, Gregorio Paltrinieri and Luca De Tullio – making his open water debut – took third in 1:11:16.70.

Wellbrock won the 10k at the 2024 season finale in Neom, Saudi Arabia, and has continued his momentum in Egypt with two trips to the top of the podium.

“I’m pretty happy,” Wellbrock said through World Aquatics. “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 has enjoyed a fine open water debut in Soma Bay, adding team gold to fourth in the individual 10k, after a superb 2024 in which she won Olympic 1500 free bronze as well as a silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships in Doha before rounding off the year with 1500 gold and 800 silver at the short-course worlds in Budapest.

“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.”

Wellbrock was instrumental in Gose’s involvement with the pair engaged in a long discussion in Magdeburg where they train under the watchful eye of Bernd Berkhahn.

“He was like, ‘OK we need you for the relay (at the Singapore World Championships)!’” Gose said of her conversation with the Tokyo Olympic champion. “I was like, ‘OK, let’s do this!’”

l-r: Moesha Johnson, Chelsea Gubecka, Kyle Lee & Nick Sloman: Photo Courtesy: World Aquatics

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,” said Olympic silver medallist Johnson. “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.”

“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.”

• 10k reports
• Results