Spudaios Kynigakis, sixth in the 10 km open sea at the World Championships

A worthy successor Spyrou Gianniotis it turns out that Alkis Kynigakis. Putting in a great performance he finished sixth in the World Championship water track at 10 km. open sea swimming with a time of 1:51:42.1. The Greek champion, although in the middle of the race he was well behind the leading group, he managed to climb up quite a bit in the final and even at the end he almost overtook last year’s world champion, the famous Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, from whom he finished just 1 ,4 seconds behind.

The 25-year-old swimmer returns to a high level, two years after finishing fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, and has every reason to be optimistic, not only for qualification, but also for distinction in Paris. He also participated in the match with a good presence Asterios Daldogianniswho placed 25th in 1:54:10.3, among 67 swimmers who started (65 finished).

The winner was declared the German Tokyo Olympian, Florian Wellbrock, who broke away in the last kilometer and finished in 1:50:40.3, 18.7 seconds behind the second-placed Hungarian “silver” Olympian, Krzysztof Rasovski. It is the second world title in this event for Wellbrock, after Guangzhou in 2019, and the fifth gold medal overall of his career, including four in the open water and one in the pool. The trio of the podium was completed by the also German Oliver Klemt, who gave his country a second “ticket” for the Paris Olympics (qualifications were ensured by the first three of the competition). The Italians, who had done “1-2” last year in Budapest, followed in positions 4-5, with Domenico Accerenza even leaving behind Gregorio Paltrinieri.

The first eight at 10 km. men’s:

1. Florian Wellbrock (Germany) 1h.50:40.3

2. Krzysztof Rasovski (Hungary) 1h.50:59.0

3. Oliver Klemt (Germany) 1h.51:00.8

4. Domenico Atcerenza (Italy) 1h.51:16.7

5. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) 1h.51:40.7

6. Alkis Kynigakis (GREECE) 1h.51:42.1

7. Nicholas Sloman (Australia) 1h.51:42.2

8. Matan Roditi (Israel) 1h.51:43.8

…

25. Asterios Daldogiannis (GREECE) 1h.54:10.3