Gregorio Paltrinieri, David Aubry Go 1-3 In Pool World Championships

Courtesy of FINA, Gwangju, South Korea. While other top pool swimmers were undergoing their final taper, Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy and David Aubry of France were busy at the Yeosu EXPO Ocean Park in South Korea competing in the open water races. Paltrinieiri finished 2nd in the 5 km Mixed Team Relay after throwing down a monster anchor leg and 6th in the 10 km race, qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon swim six seconds out of gold.  Aubry finished 6th in the 5 km Mixed Team Relay and 10th in the 10 km race, also qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon swim. Paltrinieri dominated the 800m freestyle on Day 4 of the 2019 FINA World Championships, finishing in an impressive 7:39.27 while setting a new European record.  Aubry closed well and finished third in 7:42.08, the first time a French swimmer earned a world championship medal in this event. Men’s 800m Freestyle Results:

1		PALTRINIERI	Gregorio	ITA	7:39.27			European Record
2		CHRISTIANSEN	Henrik	NOR	7:41.28
3		AUBRY	David	FRA	7:42.08
4		MCLOUGHLIN	Jack Alan	AUS	7:42.64
5		DETTI	Gabriele	ITA	7:43.89
6		SUN	Yang	CHN	7:45.01
7		FROLOV	Sergii	UKR	7:47.32
8		ROMANCHUK	Mykhailo	UKR	7:49.32

Paltrinieri said in his post-victory interview, “I mean [victory] is a big surprise. After the open water last week, I was feeling really tired. It was difficult to change from the open water to the swimming pool so it’s crazy to be here right now at the top of the world. I was silver in Kazan, bronze in Budapest, so just miss the gold. [Defeating Sun Yang of China] doesn’t mean anything to me. Everyone in this competition … I’m against them all.  Sun Yang is just like another athlete. I don’t want to think about anything while I’m racing like doping or something, I just don’t care. I just want to beat them all.” Other open water swimmers who competed in the 800m freestyle were Zane Grothe (USA) who finished 11th in 7:50.14, Jordan Wilimovsky (USA) who finished 16th in 7:53.11 and 5th in the 10 km race qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Florian Wellbrock (Germany) who finished 19th in 7:53.75 and was 1st in the 10 km race qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Grothe also finished 8th in the 400m freestyle on Day 1 in 3:45.78 while Marwan Elamrawy (Egypt) finished 23rd in the 400m freestyle in 3:52.51 and 56th in the 10 km race in 1:54:40.80. Copyright © 2008 – 2019 by World Open Water Swimming Association