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World Championships: Gregorio Paltrinieri Completes 10K-1500m Double; Sharon van Rouwendaal Claims First World Title
Gregorio Paltrinieri claimed the 10km crown at Lake Lupa to become the second man to secure the pool and open water double at the World Championships.
The 27-year-old swam the second-fastest 1500m free in history on the final evening of pool swimming on Saturday when he attacked from the outset to go 14:32.80, eclipsed only by Sun Yang’s 14:31.04.
He followed that up with silver in the 5km in Hungary before claiming the 10km crown, coming from third to first to get his hand on the board in 1jr 50mins 56.8secs.
Domenico Acerenza made it an Italian one-two in 1:50.58.2 with Florian Wellbrock – the first man to win the 10k-1500m double in Gwangju three years ago – third in 1:51:11.2.
Paltrinieri planned a strategy to ensure he was taking on enough fluid in the hot air and water termperatures.
He said:
“I have won four medals – in every event I have done, I got a medal. I am really happy with his championship, it’s been really cool.
“It’s been so hot today, much worse than two days ago, but I told my coach that I wanted to get to feed and get a drink every single lap and that’s what we did, so probably that was the key and I got properly hydrated.
“Being on a podium with a friend of mine, Domenico – we live together, we swim together, we’ve been together for 10 years now – it’s beautiful.
“I wanted to win, I wanted to do my best today, I pushed.
“In the first half I was looking for drag, just swimming behind someone else, then I improved in the last 2000 metres and I’ve seen a chance and I took it.
“After 10 days of competition, one after another, it has been challenging mentally, but it’s cool, we have prepared for this.”
While Acerenza described the Italian 1-2 as a dream, Wellbrock was more circumspect, pointing to the fatiguing effects of the conditions.
He said:
“I have mixed feelings, because I couldn’t defend my title, but I am quite happy with the bronze medal.
“I have felt it yesterday how much the last race has taken out of me, but I tried to recover quickly to start here.
“Because of this, I am satisfied with the bronze, the other two on the podium were incredibly strong, Domenico only came for the open water events, Gregorio perhaps has more routine in recovering than I have, he’s been swimming for longer than I do.
“We experienced these kind of conditions in Tokyo, that’s why I feel good in this kind of weather, but the temperature didn’t make it easier for sure.
“It’s been a challenging race for us, flat water, no waves, so it wasn’t easy to master these conditions today, but I think everyone did a good job.”
Leonie Back, Sharon van Rouwendaal, Ana Cunha; Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
That followed a dramatic women’s race in which Sharon van Rouwendaal won by 0.5secs to claim her first world 10km title.
The Netherlands headed a photo finish in 2hrs 02mins 29.2secs, leading home Leonie Beck of Germany in 2:02:29.7 and 5km winner Ana Cunha (2:02.30.7.).
Van Rouwendaal has now won every title available to her: Olympic gold at Rio 2016, European titles between 2014-2020 and now the world title after silver at Kazan 2015.
Van Rouwendaal said:
“It’s pretty hard to race against this field, you always have to try another way and another tactic.
“I think I made perfect race, I was top fit, and I had a good feeling. I was waiting for my moment and everything came together.
“I did a really good sprint at the end, I just tried to focus on myself.
“I had a good feeling the whole day, even though I was very far behind at one stage, I felt sort of fresh.
“Actually I really like cold water, and cold conditions – but today was okay, I thought the weather was better. I tried to drink every single time to gain extra energy.”
