Velly and Jouisse take Setubal crowns as Open Water Swimming Cup completes second stop

The second leg of the European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup 2025 saw France’s Sacha Velly and Caroline Jouisse continue an impressive uptick in the nation’s form as they took the respective men’s and women’s titles at the Parque Urbano de Albarquel in Setubal, Portugal.

Following the first leg in Cyprus last month, a total of 21 men and ten women took to the pontoon at 11am local time – ready for the 10km, six lap race.

France’s Sacha Velly surged to a well-measured victory in the men’s race, clocking 1:51:45.58 as he dropped Italy’s Fabio Dalu and Türkiye’s Berk Boz in a thrilling final lap of the 1.66km circuit.

Velly sat just behind the pace for much of the race, letting Dalu and others exchange leads through the early and middle laps. He made his decisive move on the final lap, demonstrating impressive composure to overhaul Dalu. His back-end speed was too much for the Italian as he opened up a huge gap to take the win by 22 seconds.

The win for Velly is a clear sign of progress, following a recent spate of top-ten finishes and a medal at both the European Aquatics Open water Swimming Championships in Stari Grad, and the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup.

Boz rounded out the podium with a time of 1:52:10.72, only 2.2 seconds behind Dalu as he mounted a challenge down the final straight. Germany’s Moritz Rainer Bockes and Belgium’s Logan Vanhuys completed the top five, both finishing in 1:52:38, separated by just 0.09 seconds.

With seven swimmers finishing within roughly 2 minutes of the winner, and a number of battles taking place in different packs of the field, the race proved once again why the Open Water Swimming Cup is a great opportunity for athletes to earmark their progress and continue their development against quality opposition.

In the women’s field, experienced French swimmer Caroline Jouisse delivered a textbook performance, timing her finish to perfection in a race that saw the top three separated by less than three seconds.

Jouisse, who had already impressed with a strong swim in Setubal at the World Cup last weekend, earning bronze, touched in 2:00:57.09, holding challenges from Monaco’s Lisa Pou (2:00:58.97) and Italy’s Giulia Berton (2:00:59.88), who finished in second and third respectively. The trio exchanged positions through the race, staying within sight of each other through all six laps.

Turkey’s Su Inal, who took the 5km European Junior title at the Championships two days prior, led at multiple checkpoints and eventually finished fourth in 2:02:31.69, while Germany’s Lara Braun claimed fifth in 2:02:35.24. With the pair both still early on in their careers, they will no doubt once again be challenging for the medals in the years to come.

The European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup 2025 now takes a short hiatus, before returning for the third leg in Paris at the end of July. It then moves on to Barcelona, before the finale in Razanac at the end of September.

Click here for the full list of results

Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics

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