World Aquatics Championships Doha 2024: Kristof Rasovszky claims men's 10km open water crown
Hungarian Rasovszky powered clear in the last 400 metres to take gold from Marc-Antoine Olivier and Hector Pardoe.
Kristof Rasovszky produced a powerful finish to take the men's 10km open water swimming title at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar on Sunday (4 February).
With 400 metres to go Rasovszky was at the front of a large lead group along with Australia's Nicholas Sloman and Domenico Acerenza of Italy.
And the Hungarian, who won silver at Tokyo 2020, kicked clear to improve on his silver medal from last July's Worlds in Fukuoka and claim his second world title. He had previously won the 5km title in 2019.
France's Rio 2016 bronze medallist Marc-Antoine Olivier finished fastest from the pack to take silver with Britain's Hector Pardoe winning a thrilling sprint for bronze as just two seconds covered third to ninth.
Another Frenchman, Logan Fontaine, was fourth ahead of Sloman with the top 13 (excluding those who had already done so by winning medals at last year's World Championships) all securing quota spots* in the 10km race for their National Olympic Committees at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Reigning world and Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock started to lose touch as the swimmers entered their sixth and final lap and eventually finished down in 29th place.
The men's 5km open water race takes place on Wednesday with Rasovszky hoping to match Wellbrock's double in Japan last year.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
