World Swimming Championships: Paltrinieri and Taddeucci, double silver in the 5km

Another (double) Italian masterpiece at the World Swimming Championships being held in Singapore. After capturing the silver medal in the 10 km, Gregorio Paltrinieri and Ginevra Taddeucci repeated, this time in the 5 km and again bringing home two more valuable silver medals for Italy.

The Italian finished behind Florian Wellbrock (57’26″4 his final time) who thus achieves a historic double: gold medal in both the 10 km and 5 km. On the lowest step of the podium was Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier. Applauding finale for Gregorio Paltrinieri who, in the last 600 meters, detached everyone and attacked Florian Wellbrock (first by less than three seconds).

Despite the finger problem, the 30-year-old Carpi native never stopped fighting: “The protective taping on my finger flew off almost immediately. Every lap I was taking saccades on my broken finger. I had to fight for the second position by doing fences with the others, I felt like I was in MotoGP. More than that was impossible, it was a perfect race”, his post-race words to Rai.

On the island of Sentosa, with water at 27°, Ginevra Taddeucci also shines. After silver in the 10 km, the Tuscan repeated in the 5 km, finishing second, behind Australia’s Moesha Johnson (1h02’01″3 her time). For the 28-year-old Italian it is the first rainbow medal in this specialty.