Australia's Moesha Johnson and Germany's Florian Wellbrock, who have trained in the same Magdeburg squad with coach Bernd Berkhahn, today added a 5km open water World title apiece to they victories in the 10km battles off the Sentosa coast at Palawan Green two days ago.

In the women's 5km, Johnson finished in 1hr 2min 1.3sec,keeping at bay the same closet rival she got the better of over 10km, Italy's Ginevra Taddeucci by a second (1:02:02.3). The bronze went to Ichika Kajimoto, her 1:02:28.9 finish granted her a debut Worlds medal.

Johnson's victory was Australia's first in the 5km since Rome 2009, when Melissa Gorman claimed the first victory for a Dolphin since the even got going in 1998. That saw Australia rise from eighth to fourth on the event all-time medals table.

Johnson's Post-Race interview, via World Aquatics:

“This is huge for my country. I think we're topping the medal table. We've never had back-to-back golds in a competition. I know we've had silvers and bronzes, so this is just historic for my country and I'm just so proud to be setting the standard for everyone.”

“I was really tired today so I wanted to try and guarantee myself a medal as early on as possible and there were just a couple of opportunities with some tight turns. If I didn't make the break then, I don't know what would have happened at the end. But once the group behind me was only Ginevra on my feet, it was much ‘easier’, but that was still a really challenging race. The 5k is much more intense so the heat was just felt a lot more today.”

“Mentally, I'm still quite exhausted from dealing with the heat the other day in the 10k race. So the heat is both mentally and physically fatiguing. I think to get through that today, I'm really proud of myself.”

“We fought to the end. It probably didn’t have to be a race that was quite that hard. I've got to back it up again tomorrow so I was hoping to save a little bit of energy, but we really fought to the end, and that makes it really exciting, fun and it makes the win that much more special.”

“I was really struggling to hold my lines, which was unusual for me. I don't know if that was the heat concentration or if there's a stronger current out there today but that makes the race really interesting. But also more difficult for all of us swimming. My lines were very bad today. I didn't mind at some point because sometimes it makes it hard for them to follow, but in the end, I was like, ‘Where's this buoy?’ I can't get my mark. But still, I held it and sometimes it just makes it tricky for the people behind me. So you just work with what you've got. I didn’t think we had to push that hard.
I knew we had a gap between me and Ginevra, she really wanted to push us today and that's sport and that's what puts on a show for everyone else, so I think that's what makes it really exciting. I've led the whole way and I was like, I want this. At the end it’s not always a lot of skill, when you're tired, it comes down to just pure fight, and I wanted that win, I wanted that back-to-back today.”

Looking over her shoulder was pain free when she thought of the enormous efforts and lengths she'd gone to chasing her golden goals:

“I know that I've worked really hard and I've sacrificed a lot of time on weekends and a lot of social activities, and basically when I'm in front, I'm just trying to stay in front because to get a whole body length around me is really challenging. When you're leading, you're trying to stay calm and just keep them behind you, I had no idea where she was. I knew she was going to bite, to be honest, I knew she wanted it today, and then I saw a splash beside me, so I started kicking my legs.” 

Beyond Singapore, she will assess, reset and decide what next all over again:

“I definitely have my mind on some really high goals. I had some back-to-back illnesses coming into this, which was really challenging. It really disrupts the process. So I came in here, I just wanted to focus on that 10k and once the 10k was done, I really had to reset, recover and take each race as it comes, so we'll see what happens.” 

Wellbrock Makes It 7th Golden Heaven For Dominant Germany

In the men's race, Wellbrock won his eighth world championship gold in 57:26.4, again, like Johnson, keeping at bay the same closest rival in the 10km, Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri (57:29.3), the bronze to France's Marc-Antoine Olivier (57:30.4).

For Wellbrock, victory meant his third 5km title and eighth career World open water title at the World Aquatics showcase of all disciplines.

Germany now dominates the all-time medals table, boasting seven titles in the 5km side the race was introduced in 1998. If three of those crowns belong to Wellbrock, four is the record held by fellow German Thomas Lurz, who is the all-time most decorated open water swimmer across all events on the program.

Wellbrock's Post-Race interview, via World Aquatics:

“It's so amazing to be honest. I didn't expect my second gold today and it was the second gold for Team Germany, for my club, for my teammate Moesha as well. It's an amazing feeling to be on the top of the podium again.”

“I didn't expect (this result) because I felt really tired after the 10km and we had just like 24 hours to recover. But luckily, everybody was tired because everybody competed in the 10km before. With these conditions, it's tough because the human body isn't made for racing in 30 degrees water. So, I'm really happy with my gold. Because of the hard conditions two days ago in the 10km, one day wasn’t enough to recover. Everybody was so tired. You could see the pace was a little bit lower, and everybody was really tired. In our preparation, we did a lot of heat training and sauna to get a good feeling for the heat, because we never have 30 degrees water in Europe, especially not in Germany. The conditions were so tough.”

On being chased down in a tight final lap, he said:

“David (Betlehem, HUN) started so fast, I didn’t expect that. I tried to follow, then in the second lap I pushed. But everybody was chasing me and tapping my feet. I didn’t feel really safe in the end because everyone was so fast behind me.”

On the final sprint, Wellbrock added:

“That felt rough. On the last 100, Greg tried to push. I tried to move faster, but it wasn’t possible. The end of this 100m was quite tough.”

For his part, Paltrinieri said:

“It’s amazing. It was a tough race, even tougher than the 10km race the other day because everyone was so close in terms of times. For me, it was a beautiful race. I was really tired today, my finger was hurt from the start and I lost the medical tape on my finger, so it was really challenging. I tried to do my best, I knew Florian was the favourite to win the race so I tried to stick close to him and tried to attack him but I wasn’t close enough. But it was a good race. It’s so hot. These conditions are one of the toughest I’ve ever raced in, but that was the same for everybody, so I tried to manage my energy, stay with the pack, stay in the front, and that was my strategy.

“I was racing with two injuries, one on my elbow and another on my finger. I was swimming with a broken finger and it hurt throughout. I lost the taping on my finger at the end of the first lap, so for me it was very hard to proceed because every lap I felt pain. But then I switched off my mind and I thought about only the race. My goal was more important than my finger.”

• Results in Full: Women; Men (see at a glance top finishers below the stats)

The all-time stats shuffle for the men's and women's 5km races:

Men's 5km All-Time Medals Table

Men Worlds 5km All-Time Podiums (1998–2025)

Women's 5km All-Time Medals Table

Women's 5km All-Time Podiums (1998-2025)

Singapore 2025 - The top Finishers:

Women:

Men: