By Will Baxley on SwimSwam
2026 Open Water World Junior Championships
September 3-6, 2026 Santa Fe, Argentina Meet CentralThe 2026 Open Water World Junior Championships completed its first day of competition, and there’s no question as to who the star of the first day was: 19-year-old Ludovica Terlizzi.
In an event that typically sees athletes bunch together for a majority of the race before making a late surge, Terlizzi opted for a Ledeckian, wire-to-wire domination style of race to dazzle the crowd in Argentina. By the first of six laps of the women’s 18-19 10k, Terlizzi already had a 30-second lead over second place Polina Koziakina of Russia. The lead only crescendoed from there, opening up to about a minute of a gap by lap two, a minute and ten seconds by the halfway point, and 80 seconds when all was said and done.
Without anyone to push her on the way home, Terlizzi hit the wall in a final time of 1:55:35.0. This marks a major breakout for the Italian and her first international medal of any kind. Prior to today, Terlizzi’s career highlights until today included a semifinal appearance at the 3k knockout in the World Cup and a 6th place finish at Italian Nationals in the 400 free.
Russia’s Koziakina held on to her runner-up position with a time of 1:56:55.40. This is newsworthy in a political way, as it’s the first time since 2019 that a Russian flag made it to a World Aquatics swimming podium. The nation has been either banned entirely or athletes banned from competing under the Russian flag for several years until the decision was recently reversed for junior events.
Rounding out the podium was Hungary’s Napsugar Nagy. Nagy is one of the more decorated athletes of this championships, adding to the two medals that she earned at the 2024 Open Water World Junior Championships.
In addition to Nagy’s bronze, Hungary also got a gold medal from Mate Karpati on the men’s 18-19 10k event. Compared to the women’s winner, Karpati had a modest victory margin of 5.6 seconds in a time of 1:46:46.30. Karpati has been a mainstay on the European Junior circuit for many years, including a European Junior title in the 5k in 2023, but this is perhaps the biggest accolade in his book yet. At 17 years of age, Karpati still has two years in junior competition.
Coming in just behind Karpati was French-trained U.S. National and Cal commit Colin Jacobs. After narrowly missing the Yankee Pan Pac roster, Jacobs has a significant success story and confidence heading into his senior year: his first international medal. His magic came in the final lap, as he was setting well out of the top five before applying the heat to overcome all but one competitor in the home stretch
Brazil’s Arthur Aguiar and Russia’s Lev Spanopulo were the race’s early pacesetters, but only Aguiar held on for a medal. Like Jacobs, this marked Aguiar’s first international medal. He is 19 years. It marks Brazil’s first ever medal at the World Junior Open Water Championships.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Italy’s Ludovica Terlizzi Wins World Junior 10k Title With 80-Second Victory Margin
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