From pool to sea: European champions goal Open Water Cup success at Sardinia 2026

From Kocaeli to Sardinia, six European medallists will swap the swimming pool for the Mediterranean waters of the Italian island within the fourth version of the World Para Swimming Open Water Cup on Saturday at Alghero’s Lido San Giovanni seaside.

Held since 2023, the WPS Open Water Cup reintroduced the self-discipline to the common World Para Swimming calendar and has since seen some large names from the pool add one other worldwide title to their CVs.

Sardinia 2026 can even once more function six medal occasions:

• Men’s and Women’s 1.5km for lessons S3 to S6
• Men’s and Women’s 3km for lessons S7 to S10
• Men’s and Women’s 3km for lessons S11 to S14

Among the Kocaeli medallists competing this 12 months, there two athletes with totally different ranges of expertise in open water swimming.

“I’ve got quite an extensive experience in open water swimming, I started off as a child around 8 or 9, and I swam it every year until 2015. Then I got into competitive Para swimming, so it’s a different kind of swimming,” Dutch S10 swimmer Bas Takken stated. “I like it, it’s more like a game, more tactic. I’m really looking forward to swimming in Sardinia with other Paralympic athletes and see what happens in the sea there.”

A two-time Paralympic medallist, Takken claimed a gold medal within the males’s 400m freestyle S10 and bronze within the males’s 200m particular person medley SM10 on the European Championships. But now he is aware of he’ll face a totally totally different atmosphere.

“You’ve got a lot of things to keep in mind. First, you have to navigate, there is no line on the bottom to follow. You have to find where you need to turn and keep track of where the other competitors are. Then you’ve also got the wave. You need to time them, whether they’re coming towards you or from your back. Wind, rain, whatever happens, you’re in the elements. There is always something extra to keep in mind, and that can make or break your race if you don’t have the right plan. But I’m really looking forward to experiencing it in a Para swimming-only event, because that’s new for me.”

The Netherlands will probably be represented by two different athletes in Sardinia, Julian Hendriks (S7) and seven-time Paralympic medallist Lisa Kruger (S10), who travelled to Italy with two bronze medals received on the European Championships in Turkiye. 

For Croatia’s Emma Mecic, the occasion will probably be a totally new expertise.

“My discipline is the 400m, so I want to try a longer distance. I’m so excited because it’s my first time. I’ve never swum in the sea, apart from during holidays, so I’ll really enjoy it,” she stated.

The Kocaeli 2026 silver medallist within the ladies’s 400m freestyle S9 and bronze medallist within the ladies’s 100m backstroke S9 stated she can be wanting ahead to practising her language expertise.

“I speak Italian. I’ve been to Italy before, but never to Sardinia. I’m really looking forward to it and to taking on this new challenge of competing in the sea, as I always swim in the pool.”

Sardinia, right here we go AGAIN! 🔜 ✈️ 🇮🇹

🌊🏊‍♂️ The World Para Swimming Open Water Cup will return to Alghero’s Lido San Giovanni on 19 September 2026 for its fourth version after the three-year internet hosting settlement being signed securing the competitors on the island by means of 2028. pic.twitter.com/6AOsGQ2Q7g

— Para Swimming (@Para_swimming) December 12, 2025

 

Title holders

The different three Kocaeli medallists will signify the host nation in Sardinia. 

Federico Bicelli earned a medal of every color on the European Championships, claiming gold within the males’s 400m freestyle S7, silver within the males’s 100m freestyle S7 and bronze within the males’s 50m freestyle S7. A 3-time Paralympic medallist and Paris 2024 champion within the 400m freestyle S7, he will probably be defending his 2025 title within the males’s 3km race.

Luca da Prato and Letizia Milesi are two European champions making their debut in Sardinia in 2026. Da Prato received the lads’s 100m backstroke S6 and was a part of the silver medal-winning combined 4x50m medley 20pts relay crew. Milezi took gold within the ladies’s 50m freestyle S8, silver within the ladies’s 100m breaststroke SB7 and bronze within the ladies’s 100m freestyle S8.

Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg (S14) didn’t attain the rostrum in Kocaeli, however she would be the identify to beat within the Open Water Cup after clinching her third consecutive gold within the ladies’s 3km S11-S14 race final 12 months. She is the one athlete ever to have received this occasion.

Lindberg will as soon as once more face Australia’s Maddison Hinds (S14), who completed second final 12 months. 

The 2024 winner and 2025 silver medallist within the males’s 1,5km S3-S6 race, Venezuela’s Ivanosky Jose Marichal, can even return to this 12 months’s Open Water Cup.

Complete schedule and outcomes of the Sardinia 2026 WPS Open Water Cup can be found here. 

Following the announcement of a three-year internet hosting settlement, Sardinia can even host the Open Water Cups in September 2027 and 2028.