Mediterranean Games 2026: Three French top-10 finishes and a mixed relay medal

Taranto, in Italy’s Apulia region, hosted the 20th edition of the Mediterranean Games from 21 August to 3 September, a sort of Olympics for nations bordering the Mediterranean. Among the 32 sports on the program was triathlon, with the sprint race (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) held on 31 August.

In the men’s individual race, a four-man breakaway featuring Greek athlete Panagiotis Bitados, Italians Euan De Nigro and Riccardo Cultore, and Spain’s Eduardo Blanco Mollá—first out of the 750m swim—blew the race apart on the 20km bike leg.

The quartet opened up a gap of more than a minute on the chasers, led in particular by Morocco’s Jawad Abdelmoula, well known in France as he lives in Rennes (where he works as a professional firefighter). A former Poissy Triathlon athlete, he now races for Triathlon Club de Liévin in the French club championship.

U23 world medalist last year, Italy’s De Nigro looked perfectly placed to deliver gold on home soil. In the end, though, it was Bitados—an European Championships medalist—who took the title, running 15:33 for the 5k. The Greek won by eight seconds over De Nigro, with Blanco Mollá rounding out the podium.

Men’s top 5

1 Panagiotis Bitados (Greece) 53:47

2 Euan De Nigro (Italy) 53:55

3 Eduardo Blanco Mollá (Spain) 54:13

4 Jawad Abdelmoula (Morocco) 55:31

5 Gültigin Er (Turkey) 55:39

Full men’s results

In the women’s race, gold went to Italy’s Bianca Seregni after a stunning solo effort. She exited the water in 12:12 and had a 56-second advantage heading into T1.

Seregni—runner-up at the 2025 WTCS Grand Final in Wollongong—then posted the day’s fastest bike split in 31:16, hitting T2 with more than 1:15 on her closest rival. A perfectly controlled 5k sealed her first international win of the 2026 season.

Slovenia’s Tjasa Vrtacic clocked the fastest run of the day in 17:06 to grab silver. Fellow Italian Paola Sacchi crossed the line just two seconds later to take bronze.

Women’s top 5

1 Bianca Seregni (Italy) 1:02:17

2 Tjasa Vrtacic (Slovenia) 1:02:40

3 Paola Sacchi (Italy) 1:02:42

4 Natalia Castro Santos (Spain) 1:03:09

5 Alejandra Seguí Soria (Spain) 1:03:31

Full women’s results

For France, the takeaway was three individual top-10 finishes

Célia Merle (Issy Triathlon) finished seventh, and Marie Wattiez (Poissy Triathlon) came eighth.

On the men’s side, the top French finisher was Basile Fouchard Basile Fouchard in seventh, followed by Hugo Borel, 11th.

France had to wait until the final day for its first medal: bronze in the mixed relay, with Célia Merle, Basile Fouchard, Marie Wattiez and Hugo Borel, behind Spain (second) and Italy. Italy dominated the triathlon events with four medals, including three gold. In the overall medal table, Italy topped the standings with 224 medals, while France finished fourth with 88 medals, including 25 gold.