Gregorio Paltrinieri Punches 7:39.27 Euro-Record Victory As Christiansen & Aubry Make History

Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy celebrates on his way out after winning in the men's 800m Freestyle Final during the Swimming events at the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships, Gwangju, South Korea, 24 July 2019. Henrik Christiansen of Norway (R) finishes second.

Gregorio Paltrinieri celebrates victory, Henrik Christiansen smiling too as Norway's first medallist among men over 800m - Photo Courtesy: Patrick B. Kraemer

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World Swimming Championships (Gregorio Paltrinieri)

Gwangju

Day 4 Finals (Men’s 800m freestyle)

Italy kept the crown but by half-way it was clear that a new name would be added to the list of champions over 16 laps: Gregorio Paltrinieri raced alone and away from a shoal of four others battling for the minor spoils.

In 7:39.27, a time that took the European record below 7:40 for the first time, the Italian claimed the crown after silver in 2015 and bronzes in 2013 and 2017.

All the champions on those occasions were in the race today but out of the medals, Paltrinieri’s training partner and defending champion Gabriele Detti fifth, China’s Sun Yang (2013, ’15) sixth.

History followed the winner onto an all-Europe podium: Henrik Christiansen granted Norway its first 800m medal in World-Championship waters in a national record of 7:41.28, and David Aubry achieved a first-ever medal for France with bronze in 7:42.08.

The European record had stood at 7:40.77 to Detti since he got the edge in a stroke-for-stroke battle with Paltrinieri, on 7:40.81, two years ago in Budapest.

1	PALTRINIERI	Gregorio	ITA	7:39.27	ER
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

After taking the bulk of a year away from his coach Stefano Morini to go and travel in Australia, train and take time out with friend and rival in the wash Mack Horton and add a heap of open water swims to his regime “to avoid getting stale on the way to Tokyo 2020”, Paltrinieri had been reminded what it felt like not to win at European Championships last year.

Today, after finishing a few strokes shy of the medals in the 10km title race last week, he got back on top of distance freestyle with a vengeance – and was delighted to have done so:

“I mean it’s 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.”

Asked if defeating Sun Yang meant anything to him, he replied: “It 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.”

His victory bodes well for a crack at the new distance double for men in Tokyo next year, the 800m having been added to the Olympic program alongside the 1500m just as the longer event is added to the women’s program.

For Christiansen, silver marked his first international honour in the long-course pool. “It’s a really good feeling. I knew that the 800 this year was a really tough race. Now that it is an Olympic event as well it is only going to get tougher. It’s really nice coming down here and getting the silver medal. “

Asked ion his preparation had changed now that the 800m was an Olympic event, he said: “I feel like the 800 is one of my strongest events. We have been starting to focus on the 800 more now that we know it is an Olympic event but it is still a highly prioritized event.”

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陳宥儒

4 years ago

As sun yang is a loser in this event lol