Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky held off a charging Marc-Antoine Olivier of France on the final lap of the men’s 10km to win the gold medal at 1:48:21.2 while Olivier won the silver at 1:48:23.6. Rasovszky, having already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games from his Worlds silver last year, had the monkey off his back on Sunday morning at the World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024 in the old Doha Port as he was getting in valuable race practice against some of the best in the world six months before the big race in Paris later this year.

“I wanted the gold, so I wasn’t coming here just to swim this again and again,” Rasovszky said. “I was talking with my wife and realized that in 10k I only got silver medals until now, it was silver or nothing for me in this distance. So I wanted to win something different this time.”

This is Olivier’s first medal at the World Aquatics Championships since winning silver in the 10km at the 2019 Gwangju Worlds.

“There was a lot of pressure because the Olympic Games are happening in my country, so before the race I wanted to be sure that I would qualify,” Olivier said. “Today I realized that I could win a medal, too, so I’m double as happy. I was extra motivated because I knew that all my family and friends can come to see me participate in Paris. It gave me more energy.”

Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe won a surprising bronze medal at 1:48:29.2 for the first major medal of his career. Pardoe previously won a bronze in the 5km at the 2016 World Juniors as he improved his 10th place finish from the World Championships in Fukuoka last year.

“I think I thrive in conditions like this,” Pardoe said. “I like it when it’s wavy, it makes it more difficult for the faster pool swimmers and better for us true open water swimmers who have been doing this since such a young age. The water temperature was 20 degrees, that may be difficult for some people in the race but being from Britain I’m used to cold weather like that, so I didn’t find any issue. I felt great during the whole race and just managed to make it happen in the last lap.”

Qualifying spots were on the line for the 10K today as Olivier officially qualified for his third Olympics today at age 27, and Pardoe qualified for his second Games at age 22.

“My first Olympic experience in Tokyo was kind of a bad one and I had to learn a lot about my confidence,” Pardoe said. “To just come here, win a medal and qualify for my second Olympic Games and hopefully continue down the path of redemption is really exciting.

“I came into it just wanting qualification for Paris and I came out with a bronze medal, I’ve got both of them now.”

The Race

Water temperature at the start of the race read 20.1 degrees Celsius with the air temperature at 19 Celsius with 4.8km winds. The choppy conditions played in the favor of the likes of Rasovszky, whose stroke worked with the waves of the water, something that the Hungarian camp was hopeful of before the race began.

Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, who came in as the defending World Champ in the 10km and 5km from last year’s Worlds in Fukuoka, tried to leave the race early like he typically does, but the choppier waters didn’t suit him as well.

Rasovszky controlled much of the race early with France’s Logan Fontaine going with him as well as one of the pre-race favorites in Italy’s Domenico Acerenza. The Hungarian, who will be on his way to his third Olympics this summer, set a torrent pace that few could hold on to as he dragged Fontaine, Acerenza, Wellbrock and fellow Hungarian David Betlehem along with him at the start of lap five of six.

The lead pack thinned out as the race stretched on lap five as France’s Olivier and Great Britain’s Pardoe started to enter the fay around there, breaching the likes of Wellbrock. That top three of Rasovszky, Fontaine, and Acerenza stayed pretty stagnant until around the 8km mark as Olivier and Betlehem started to make their way up into the top three. Olivier was able to get all the way up to the top two as it was him and Fontaine leading the field into the final lap and it almost looked like a France 1-2 was in the making in the men’s 10km.

The race really tightened up on the last lap of the race as Fontaine led the pack and the likes of Nicholas Sloman of Australia made his move. Acerenza and Sloman have been known to close really well in open water races so when they breached the lead on the last lap, it looked like the movie everyone had seen before.

Five different lines formed as multiple guys thought they had a chance to win as they approached the final turn buoy, but as they got out of the final buoy, it was Rasovszky back in front. He had fallen off from the lead somewhere in the middle of the race but he timed his race to perfection and led the lines into the finish.

Rasovszky and Olivier finished first and second, with the Hungarian touching at 1:48:21.2 with Olivier winning his first major silver in five years at 1:48:23.6.

“I tried to save energy from the fights, but I had to use a lot of energy staying on front, so then I tried to make myself comfortable somewhere,” Rasovszky said.

"Of course the other guys are very strong too, the two Frenchmen, also Domenico (Acerenza), but I think I found another gear in the last 200 meters and it was the key for this win.”

The race of the bronze heated up as Britain’s Pardoe won the fray at 1:48:29.2 over France’s Fontaine (1:48:29.5), Australia’s Sloman (1:48:29.6), Hungary’s Betlehem (1:48:29.9), and Italy’s Acerenza (1:48:30.4).

“For my country it was important to qualify two men and two women for the Olympics,” Olivier said of his silver, and Fontaine’s Olympic berth. “We are pleased we did it and now we have five or six months ahead of us in order to create a new story for the Olympic Games. As hosts of the event we will try to get as many medals as possible in Paris.”

The top 13 automatically qualified for the Paris Olympics this year, but with last year’s Worlds silver medalist Rasovszky and Worlds bronze medalist Oliver Klemet having already qualified, two additional spots were given in the top 13.

Italy’s Dario Verani (1:48:30.8), Australia’s Kyle Lee (1:48:31.2), and Israel’s Matan Roditi (1:48:31.7) rounded out the top ten to get to the Paris Olympics.

Germany’s Klemet finished 11th, opening up spots for the likes of Ecuador’s David Farinango (1:48:34.4), Greece’s Athanasios Kynigakis (1:48:34.6), USA’s Ivan Puskovitch (1:48:54.4) and Great Britain’s Tobias Robinson (1:48:54.7) to gain automatic bids for the Games as each of them qualified for their first Olympics with the exception of Farinango, who qualified for his second.