Singapore 2025: European athletes ready for open water battles at World Championships

As one of the busiest summers of open water swimming continues, the attention turns to the showpiece World Aquatics Championships 2025, which will see Europe’s best athletes looking to make inroads against the best on the planet across five days, running from 16 – 20 July.

The women’s and men’s 10km events kick-off proceedings on 16 July following a delay in the women’s event from 15 July due to water quality, and the 69-strong field for the former race will see medal chances from across the pontoon. Hungary’s Viktoria Mihalyvari and Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci took the respective 10km and 5km European titles at the European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Championships Stari Grad 2025, and they will be amongst those who could provide some medal chances over the trademark 10km distance.

Also looking to go well include France’s Ines Delacroix and Caroline Jouisse, Hungary’s Janka Juhasz, Spain’s Maria de Valdes and Italy’s Barbara Pozzobon. The six-lap course on the coast of Sentosa Island should see the European women look to put on a show against strong competition from Australia and America.

The men’s side of the competition also opens with that 10km race later in the day, and with an incredible 81 athletes doing battle for the crown. Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky will be one of the favourites for the title, with the reigning world, European and Olympic champion fresh off the back of that continental accolade in Stari Grad at the end of May.

Also in the mix from a European perspective are Germany’s Olympic silver medallist Oliver Klemet and compatriot Florian Wellbrock, Italian stalwart Gregorio Paltrinieri, France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier and Rasovszky’s compatriot David Betlehem. With the last edition of the competition in Doha seeing Rasovszky, Olivier and Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe take to the podium, any one of those mentioned athletes will fancy their chances at a medal come Wednesday.

A one-day break is then followed by Friday’s 5km races, with both the men’s and women’s taking place on the same day. The majority of the athletes from that 10km event will be looking to either avenge their earlier performance or build on their success, with the 5km race always providing opportunities for athletes to make surprising performances. Poland’s Klaudia Tarasiewicz and Monaco’s Lisa Pou are both not to be discounted across either distance, and will almost certainly be in and around those top places when the funnel is in sight.

The above is a similar story to the men’s 5km competition, which will also see Italy’s Marcello Guidi and France’s Sacha Velly join the fray and make the competition even more fierce over a distance that has become more popular and significant in recent years.

Another distance that has shot to prominence since its introduction is the 3km knockout sprint event, which will make its World Championships debut this year. Following a successful showing at the European edition, which saw Rasovszky and compatriot Bettina Fabian take the inaugural titles at that competition, its debut at world level in Singapore will see the three-round event begin with the women’s races.

With two heats across both events splitting the 59-strong women’s field before they come together for the semi-final, the unique nature of the event adds more athletes to the fray as they look to use the short course to their advantage.

Germany’s Lea Boy and Spain’s Paula Otero Fernandez, who took silver and bronze respectively in the event in Stari Grad, return alongside Fabian to the world stage, with German Isabel Gose and France’s Clemence Coccordano also ones-to-watch across the 1.5km, 1km and 500m races should they manage to progress through the rounds.

The 65 athletes in the men’s event will also make for intriguing viewing, as European bronze medallist Betlehem joins Rasovszky for the competition. They will undoubtedly be wanting to return to the podium this time around, with there sure to be surprises from elsewhere in the field as well, due to the event being in its infancy.

The final day of competition comes on the Sunday, with the Mixed 4x1500m Relay. Hungary, Italy and France were on the podium from the last edition of the competition in Doha, and the ever-present showpiece finale will once again provide a fitting tribute to end the week, as European athletes will once-again look to do themselves proud on the world stage.

The competition gets underway with the men’s 10km event at 07:30 local time on Wednesday 16 July (01:30 CEST).

Click here for the full schedule and results.

Click here to watch live on Eurovision Sport.

Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics

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