Setubal 2025: Hungary crowned best team as Junior Open Water Swimming Championships concludes in style
The European Aquatics Junior Open Water Swimming Championships 2025 drew to a thrilling close in Setubal on Saturday, with Hungary sealing the Team Trophy after three action-packed days of racing that saw the continent’s brightest young talents deliver one stunning performance after another.
The Hungarians topped the overall medal table with eight podium finishes – including two golds – and capped off their campaign with a memorable victory in the 4x1500m U16 Mixed Team event to underline their remarkable consistency across age groups and distances.
The penultimate race of the Championships, the U19 Mixed Team relay, delivered an unforgettable three-way sprint to the finish. In one of the closest contests ever seen in the event’s history, Italy edged out France and Hungary by just 0.07 seconds in a heart-stopping conclusion to the battle which lasted just over an hour.
Rebecca Rimoldi, Viola Giraudo, Davide Grossi, and Giovanni Lauricella combined for the Italian quartet to stop the clock at 1:07:45.66 – just seven-hundredths ahead of France and a further one-hundredth in front of Hungary. All three teams went stroke for stroke going into the funnel – and had to wait until they returned to the concourse to find out their fate. The Italian team burst into celebration when the result was announced.
Hungary’s U16 mixed relay squad – Boroka Kertesz, Anna Bartalos, Marton Huszti, and Balint Kreisz – dominated their age-group relay to take the gold by a 10 second margin. Their time of 1:15:15.27 was courtesy of some great back-end speed from the two finishers, as they dropped the pack and came in for the gold over silver medallists Poland, with Spain securing the bronze just under nine seconds further back.
Following the medals, there was a crowning moment for the Hungarian delegation when they received the Team Trophy.
Despite being narrowly denied team relay gold, France ended the Championships with more gold medals than any other nation – four in total – including a stunning Day One double in the 10km events and a string of strong individual performances. Their silver in the U19 relay added to a total of seven medals overall, placing them second behind Hungary on the total count.
Meanwhile, Greece, Italy, and Turkiye also featured prominently, each taking at least one gold over the four days. Italy finished with three medals and that final-day gold, while Poland and Spain each celebrated hard-earned podium finishes in the U16 relay events.
With new champions crowned and futures forged in the waters of Setubal, attention now turns to the second leg of the European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup at the same venue, and then moving to the junior competitions in artistic swimming, diving and swimming.
Click here for the full list of results from the event
Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
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