Velly and Pou hold off Italian pressure to win men’s and women’s titles at EA Open Water Swimming Cup leg 3 in Paris

Sacha Velly achieved a home victory at today’s third leg of the European Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup in Paris after holding off a sustained challenge from Italian rivals.

The women’s race was won by Monaco’s Lisa Pou, who earned world 10km bronze in Singapore nine days ago.

The 20-year-old French swimmer, who won the world and European junior titles last year, finished the 10km race in 1:46:58.46, with Italian athletes filling five of the next six places.

It was Velly’s second successive win in his event after his triumph in Setubal’s leg 2 last month.

Italy’s Dario Verani, the 2024 European 25m champion, finished second in 1.31sec, with third place, in 1:47.00.08, going to last year’s overall champion Andrea Filadelli, who won the opening leg of this year’s competition at Protaras in Cyprus.

Their team-mates Fabio Dalu, Giuseppe Ilario and Andrea Conforto finished respectively in fourth, fifth and seventh place, with France’s Emile Mesamacque claiming sixth position in a field of 32 finishers.

Like Velly, Pou also won under extreme pressure from Italy – in her case Linda Caponi, who finished just 0.07 behind the Monaco swimmer’s time of 1:54:49.28.

Third place went to Spain’s Candela Sanchez Lora, who was 3.85 behind the winner, with Italy’s Iris Menchini, on 1:55:17.18, and Fabienne Wenske of Germany, on 1:55:43.88 filling the next two places in a field of 18.

The first open water swimming event to be held in the French capital since the Paris 2024 Olympics took place at the Bassin de la Villette, a body of water linking several canals, after being switched from the Quai Grenelle venue on the River Seine because of recent severe rainfall.

The next leg of the EA Open Water Swimming Cup will take place in Barcelona on September 20.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

The post Velly and Pou hold off Italian pressure to win men’s and women’s titles at EA Open Water Swimming Cup leg 3 in Paris first appeared on European Aquatics®.