Stari Grad 2025: Hungary crowned best team as they round-off European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Championships with relay victory
Hungary took the final gold medal of the European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Championships Stari Grad 2025 – overcoming the Italian and French teams in a thrilling finish.
The group also took the Best Team Award trophy, with one of the most dominant performances in the competition’s history.
The only race of the day was the Mixed 4 x 1500m Team Relay, with all athletes being full of smiles as they looked forward to rounding off the competition with the fan-favourite event.
With two men and two women on a team, each athlete swum one lap of the 1500m course, before handing over, with any order being allowed.
In what was one of the hottest days of the week, the seven teams took to the pontoon for the final time in the bay of Stari Grad, Croatia, with only Faroe Islands and Slovakia opting for a male athlete to take them out.
Although Liggjas Joensen (Faroe Islands) and Rastislav Cacik (Slovakia) did manage to get off to a strong start, they were soon passed by the Italian, Hungarian, German and French women of Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Viktoria Mihalyvari, Lea Boy and Clemence Coccordano respectively.
The first three of those were comfortably ahead of the pack as they handed over inside three seconds of each other, with three legs to go.
The French, German and Hungarian teams quickly left the chasing pack down their opening straight, with Ines Delacroix of the former ahead at the turn.
The race was made all-the-more exciting as Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci joined the back of the leaders before the handover. At the halfway stage, Hungary’s Bettina Fabian and France’s Delacroix touched in unison to set-off David Betlehem and Sacha Velly respectively, with Italy and Germany just six seconds behind.
Marcello Guidi from the Italian team gradually caught up with the two leaders down the first straight, and they were three abreast at the turn. It was Betlehem, who had already taken 5km and 3km knockout medals over the previous two days, who managed to edge ahead of the two other athletes as they came into the final handover.
Although the Paris 2024 champion Kristof Rasovszky, anchoring the Hungarian team, was in front, Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri looked determined to spoil the party. The five-time Olympic medallist looked to front-end his effort, and glided past the competition to get an early lead. Clocking onto this, both Rasovszky and France’s Logan Fontaine sought to make it a showdown into the turn, with the former having the inside line as they came around.
Over the closing few hundred metres it was a straight shoot-out between Paltrinieri and Rasovszky, as had been the case in the 5km event. In that race, both athletes used a number of tactics to get the upper hand. This time round, though, it was a straight slog for victory. With the finish being a story of who had more in the tank, it was clear that Rasovszky was up for the task, as he held firm and came in for the victory.
Paltrinieri, although being caught up by Fontaine towards the end, still did enough to touch for the silver medal just two seconds behind – pipping the Frenchman on the touch.
The gold medal for Mihalyvari, Fabian, Betlehem and Rasovszky took Hungary’s tally up to five of the total seven gold medals on offer, with Italy taking the other two. Rasovszky was far and away the most successful athlete of the competition, with a 100% podium-rate through his three golds and one bronze medal.
Speaking after the race, Rasovszky reflected on his time competing in the relay following individual success.
“It was really good to be part of this team again because it’s a different race.” He said. “We race for each other as well and we are really happy to win. It was really good and this is an amazing team, so thank you everyone.”
Fabian also gave a bit of insight into how the team plan to go forward following the result. She said: “We change our team mates every year, as you can see, but I hope that we are going to make it to the World Championships and be able to win it.”
The Italians took the remaining two gold medals through Taddeucci’s 10km and Paltrinieri’s 5km titles. The latter athlete spoke joyfully of the legacy that he hopes the Italian team have made, and how he sees the nation progressing.
“A lot of new guys are starting open water in Italy,” he explained. “Maybe because of us. It’s great to inspire new guys and people all around Italy.”
France’s record of two silvers and two bronze medals was still a respectable one, given the standard of the competition. Both Coccordano and Delacroix spoke of their delight in receiving their first medals of the competition.
“It’s good,” they said with smiles on their faces. “We are happy to be here and to be medallists today.
“It was such a good competition, in such a beautiful city. It’s been amazing, so thank you.”
With the action now over, the attention of European Aquatics for open water turns to the European Aquatics Junior Open Water Swimming Championships in Setubal, Portugal, from June 19 – 22.
Click here for the full list of results.
Click here to watch back all the action on European Aquatics TV.
Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
The post Stari Grad 2025: Hungary crowned best team as they round-off European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Championships with relay victory first appeared on European Aquatics®.