Setubal 2025: Fabulous France take 10km brace as day one of Championships delivers
The European Aquatics Junior Open Water Swimming Championships Setubal 2025 began in spectacular fashion on Thursday, as the municipality’s coastal waters played host to four hotly contested races packed with drama, grit, and breathtaking finishes. Across the 10km and 7.5km events for J3 and J2 athletes respectively, junior swimmers from across Europe demonstrated not just endurance but remarkable tactical precision and racing intelligence well beyond their years.
France made an immediate statement in the day’s longest events, with Emile Mesmacque and Lou-Ann Gaudaire striking gold in the Boys’ and Girls’ 10km J3 respectively. Mesmacque’s victory was a masterclass in race management. Sitting 13th after the opening 1.66km, he climbed 12 places to take the lead at 3.33km and stayed in contention throughout a see-sawing battle. He briefly dropped to third at 8.33km but unleashed a final sprint to reclaim the lead and secure the win in 1:55:23.61. His ability to respond to shifts in pace and positioning – regaining the lead after slipping back twice – proved decisive. He touched ahead of Hungarian Hunor Kovacs Seres and compatriot Ethan Parker, who took respective silver and bronze.
Gaudaire’s triumph in the girls’ race was equally hard-fought. After hovering in the middle of the lead pack through the halfway mark, she surged from sixth at 5km to second by 6.66km, before briefly slipping to fourth at 8.33km. Her final charge in the closing stretch sealed a stunning comeback victory in 2:09:01.48, narrowly ahead of Italy’s Viola Giraudo by just 0.69 seconds. Her split data tells the story of a swimmer who refused to give up – tactically biding her time before storming through in the final kilometre.
In the Boys’ 7.5km J2 race, Konstantinos Chourdakis of Greece produced one of the day’s most impressive turnarounds. He was eighth at 1.5km and had dropped to 16th by the 3km mark. But a powerful middle section saw him gain ten places in the next 1.5km, rising to sixth and holding steady through 6km. A blistering final lap launched him into gold-medal position at the finish, touching in 1:28:29.24, just 0.28 seconds ahead of Lev Spanopulo. His split progression proved to fit the trend of close finishes in the iconic Parque Urbano de Albarquel, as the well-attended crowd enjoyed his visible display of emotions coming off the pontoon.
Hungary, one of the pre-tournament favourites, claimed their first gold of the meet in the Girls’ 7.5km J2, thanks to Napsugár Nagy, who led early and closed even stronger. After setting the pace from the opening buoy, she briefly dropped to fifth at 3km, but quickly reasserted herself by moving up to second through the middle stages. Her time of 1:35:15.69 was just 0.10 seconds clear of Italy’s Ginevra Bagaglini in what was the closest finish of the day. In fact, the top four were only separated by just one second, as Varvara Kharchenko took bronze. The clear depth of class in the category will likely continue to be on display as the relay and knockout events continue heading into the coming days.
As such, France sit atop the medal table with two days to go with two golds to their name, but the Hungarian team will be looking to usurp the nation to that crown when the J1 5km races and knockout events take place tomorrow, starting at 10am local time (WEST).
Click here for the full results from the competition so far.
Click here to watch all the action live.
Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
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