Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri entered as the reigning World and Olympic champion in the 1500 free, but he could not keep up with two young stars who stormed to gold and silver. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock jumped out to a lead over the second half of the race and held off an impressive late charge from Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk to take the gold medla.
Wellbrock finished in 14:36.15, followed by Romanchuk in 14:36.88. The duo improved to fourth and fifth all-time in the event, respectively, trailing only Sun Yang, Paltrinieri and the legendary Grant Hackett.
Paltrinieri ended up fading to bronze in 14:42.85.
Italy ended up going 3-4, despite the absence of Gabriele Detti, as Domenico Azerenza came in at 14:51.88. Norway’s Henrik Christiansen came in fifth at 14:56.47, followed by France’s Damien Joly (14:57.82), Ukraine’s Sergey Frylov (14:58.46) and the Czech Republic’s Jan Micka (14:59.49).
