Olympic Champ Florian Wellbrock, Jeanette Spiwoks Win LEN Open Water Cup in Barcelona

Photo Courtesy: PATRICK B. KRAEMER

Olympic Champ Florian Wellbrock, Jeanette Spiwoks Win LEN Open Water Cup in Barcelona

The German duo of Florian Wellbrock and Jeanette Spiwoks won the men’s and women’s titles at the LEN Open Water Cup race on Saturday in Barcelona. The loaded field featured four of the six medalists from the 10-kilometer race at the Tokyo Olympics.

Wellbrock, fresh off his gold medal in Tokyo, picked up another victory, covering the course in one hour, 48 minutes, 20.10 seconds. He pulled away late to finish nearly two seconds ahead of Italy’s Domenico Acarenza.

As he did at the Tokyo Olympics, Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy took home bronze, 7.7 seconds behind the pace of Wellbrock. He edged out Tokyo silver medalist Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary for third place. Marc-Antoine Olivier of France, who won the first leg of the series in Ohrid, North Macedonia, back in August as part of an impressive summer, finished a distant 10th.

Spiwoks and Lea Boy made it a German 1-2 in the women’ race, the swimmers separated by two and a half seconds at the finish line. A pair of Italians dueled for bronze, with Giulia Gabbrielleschi getting her hand across the line first by .02 seconds over countrywoman Ginevra Taddeucci.

Anna Olasz of Hungary, who finished fourth in Tokyo, landed sixth in Barcelona on Saturday. Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands finished 11th in her first race since winning Olympic silver.

The Barcelona stop is Leg 3 of the 2021 LEN Open Water Cup Series. (Leg 2, which had been scheduled for Sept. 19 in Rijeka, Croatia, was cancelled.) The series travels next to Piombino, Italy on Oct. 3 before finishing up in Alghero six days later for the fifth installment.

LEN Open Water Cup

Leg 3, Barcelona

Men’s

Florian Wellbrock, Germany, 1:48:20.10.
Domenico Acerenza, Italy, 1:48:21.80
Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy, 1:48:27.80

Women’s

Jeanette Spiwoks, Germany, 1:57:05.80
Lea Boy, Germany, 1:57:08.30
Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Italy, 1:57:13.00

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use