Residence success for Italy as Lindberg extends World Para Swimming Open Water Cup reign in Sardinia

Italy’s dwelling stars added extra titles to a powerful September, whereas Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg continued her exceptional reign on the World Para Swimming Open Water Cup in Sardinia, Italy, claiming one other ladies’s 3km title.

The competitors featured races throughout the 1.5km and 3km distances, with athletes from Europe, Oceania and the Americas battling for honours on the fourth version of the occasion, held on Saturday at Alghero’s Lido San Giovanni seashore.

Fresh from the European Championships in Kocaeli, Turkiye, Paralympic champion Federico Bicelli (S7) led an Italian cost, taking gold forward of Dutch swimmer Bas Takken (S10) and fellow Italian Tommaso Clementoni (S9) within the males’s 3km race for swimmers in lessons S7-S10.

It was Bicelli’s second consecutive win in Sardinia, following his profitable 2025 debut. At the Kocaeli 2026 European Championships earlier this month, he claimed 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 special victory, made even more beautiful by the company,” Bicelli posted on social media after the race alongside Clementoni, Italy’s Letizia Milesi and Croatia’s Emma Mecic.

Mecic (S9) secured one of many standout victories of the competitors, taking gold within the ladies’s 3km S7-S10 occasion. She completed forward of fellow open water debutant Lisa Kruger (S10) of the Netherlands, whereas Italy’s Margherita Sorini (S9) accomplished the rostrum in third place.

The ladies’s 3km S14 race as soon as once more belonged to Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg, who efficiently defended her title to proceed a powerful unbeaten streak in Sardinia. Lindberg led dwelling Australia’s Jade Lucy, who took silver, whereas compatriot Maddison Hinds secured bronze.

The outcome bolstered Lindberg’s standing because the swimmer to beat within the ladies’s S14 open water occasion, with the Swede now victorious in all 4 editions of the Open Water Cup.

Fresh from successful the lads’s 100m backstroke S6 title on the European Championships, Italy’s Luca da Prato (S6) topped the lads’s 1.5km S3-S6 podium forward of Venezuela’s Ivanosky Jose Marichal (S6), the 2024 winner of the occasion.

Complete outcomes of the Sardinia 2026 Open Water Cup may be discovered beneath:

Men’s 1.5km (S3-S6)

1. Luca da Prato (S6) – Italy

2. Ivanosky Jose Marichal (S6) – Venezuela

Women’s 1.5km (S3-S6)

1. Caterina Meschini (S6) – Italy

Men’s 3km (S7-S10)

1. Federico Bicelli (S7) – Italy

2. Bas Takken (S10) – Netherlands

3. Tommaso Clementoni (S9) – Italy

Men’s 3km (S14)

1. Andres Torres (S14) – Venezuela

Women’s 3km (S7-S10)

1. Emma Mecic (S9) – Croatia

2. Lisa Kruger (S10) – Netherlands

3. Margherita Sorini (S9) – Italy

Women’s 3km (S14)

1. Pernilla Lindberg (S14) – Sweden

2. Jade Lucy (S14) – Australia

3. Maddison Hinds (S14) – Australia

Complete outcomes of Sardinia 2026 can be found here.