Silver-medallists team Italy, gold-medallists team Australia and bronze-medallists team Hungary pose on the podium with their medals after the final of the mixed 4X1500m relay open water swimming event. PICS: AFP
Doha, Qatar: Australia edged defending champions Italy to clinch the mixed 4x1500-meter open water gold at the World Aquatics Championships Doha 2024 following a thrilling contest yesterday.
At the Doha Old Port, the Australian team comprising Moesha Johnson, Chelsea Gubecka, Nicholas Sloman and Kyle Lee clocked 1 hour, 3 minutes, 28 seconds - just 0.20 seconds ahead of the Italian squad as they became the first non-European side to win the event since Shanghai 2011.
It is Australia’s first-ever gold medal in the open water team relay at the World Championships.
China’s Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi compete in the final of the women’s duet free artistic swimming event yesterday.
In what was a tough battle among the three sides, the Hungarian squad consisting of Bettina Fabian, Mira Szimcsak, David Betlehem and Kristof Rasovszky settled for a bronze medal with a time of 1:04:06.80.
A strong performance led the last year’s world bronze medalist Australia to the title in the race that could be considered as a sprint for open water swimmers with teams of four racing one lap each in the Mixed 4 x1500m team event.
“I think we absolutely raised the bar within the last five years,” Gubecka said. “I am proud of this team but even the juniors who are coming up want to be a part of this and we set the bar to that standard. We want these kids to come up and achieve that too. As far as we can continue the legacy especially with this relay, it really means something.”
With Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Arianna Bridi, Gregorio Paltrinieri, and Domenico Acerenza battling to defend Italy’s title, Lee took a last-gasp lead over Acerenza to secure victory for Australia.
Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi pose with their gold medals.
“It was a tough finish but we knew that Australia was strong,” Paltrinieri said. “But we will see next time who is going to win. We expected this battle between us and Hungary and Australia. This is the fourth medal in a row for us so it is very good.”
At the Aspire Dome yesterday, Chinese twins Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi secured gold in the duet free routine to continue their winning streak in the artistic swimming at Doha 2024.
The 27-year-old stars won the event after accumulating 250.7729 points, beating another set of Dutch twins Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer. The Netherlands had to content for a silver medal with their tally of 250.4979 while Britain’s Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe took bronze after earning 247.2626 points.
The Wang sisters have each claimed four gold medals in the Qatari capital.
China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao pose on the podium.
Later yesterday, Junjie Lian and Hao Yang added gold to China’s tally winning the men’s 10m synchronised (diving) final with 470.76 points at Hamad Aquatics Centre.
Britains’s duo of Thomas Daley and Noah Williams claimed silver medal with 422.37 points while Ukraine’s Oleksii Sereda and Kirill Boliukh won the bronze medal after scoring 406.47 points.
After seventh day’s finals, China stayed on top of the medals standings winning 12 gold, three silver and one bronze, far ahead of second-placed Australia, who have won two gold, three bronze and a bronze medal. The Netherlands are third on the table grabbing two gold and one silver medal so far.
