SINGAPORE: It was a case of deja vu at the World Aquatics Championships on Friday as training mates Florian Wellbrock and Moesha Johnson sealed their second titles of the event, this time in the men’s and women’s 5km open water swimming. The warm Sentosa Island water was noticeably calmer than on Wednesday, when Johnson became the first Australian to win the women’s 10km world title. But it was a similar story as she found herself locked in another intense battle with Ginevra Taddeucci. The pair were almost neck-and-neck going into the final lap, but despite the Italian’s late push, Johnson had enough stamina to push on and seal a second title in three days with a time of 1:02.1.30. Paris 2024 bronze medallist Taddeucci sealed another silver medal, while Kajimoto Ichika of Japan took bronze. Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist and two-time 5km world champion Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil finished eighth. “This is huge for my country,” Johnson, who is the fifth woman to win the 5km/10km double at the same World Aquatics Champio-nships said. “I think we’re topping the medal table. We’ve never had back-to-back golds in a competition. I know we’ve had silvers and bronzes, so this is just historic for my country, and I’m just so proud to be setting the standard for everyone.” Germany’s Wellbrock showed no signs of rust from his 10km victory on Wednesday, as he took the lead on the second lap of the men’s race. Wellbrock, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion of the 10km category, touched home in 57 minutes 26.40 seconds, claiming his eighth international gold in open water swimming. The 27-year-old finished just 2.90 seconds ahead of Italy’s six-time world champion across pool and open water Gregorio Paltr-inieri, the silver medal winner in the 10km two days ago. Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier took bronze in 57:30.40. For Wellbrock, the victories in Singapore marked a welcome return to form after his disappointing performance at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Watched by his parents, Anja and Bernd, the German managed to put behind the difficult memories that had weighed on him since the biggest setback of his career. Wellbrock, who enjoyed the warmer waters off Sentosa Island, had even considered retiring after missing out on the 800m and 1,500m finals in Paris. Although competing for different countries, both Johnson and Wellbrock represent the same club and benefit from elite-level training in the East German city of Magdeburg. While Wellbrock was recovering from Olympic heartbreak, Johnson had taken silver in the women’s 10km race in Paris. Despite rediscovering his love for the sport, Wellbrock acknowledged the physical demands of competing in Asia. “Racing five kilometres just two days after the ten was a real challenge for everyone. I didn’t feel confident in the five and, like everyone else, had to push to the absolute limit,” he said. “The human body is only built to withstand so much in these kinds of temperatures,” Wellbrock added. Both Wellbrock and Johnson credited heat chamber training in recent weeks for their strong performances. “We did a lot of that preparation, and it seems to have paid off,” Wellbrock said. Elsewhere, China’s Xu Huiyan led the women’s solo technical preliminaries while Alexandri sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina of Austria took the lead in the duet technical as artistic swimming opened on Friday. 19-year-old Xu led the field with 265.8984 points, emerging first among 35 swimmers, ahwad of Saturday’s final. The Alexandri sisters took the lead with 305.1684 in the duet technical, the final of which is scheduled for Monday. The main event of the championships is eight days of swimming competition in the pool, which opens on July 27. Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2025