Swimming World Championship
Wellbrock celebrates silver: “Never worked out so well”
Runner-up Florian Wellbrock (lr), winner Bobby Finke from the USA and the Ukrainian Michailo Romantschuk on the podium. Photo: Petr David Josek/AP/dpa
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It also goes over 800 meters. Florian Wellbrock wins silver at the World Championships. The German pool team has now won more medals than at the past two World Championships.
Florian Wellbrock, happy about his silver medal at the World Championships, high-fived his Ukrainian training buddy Michailo Romantschuk.
In his first World Championship final in Budapest, Wellbrock showed in German record time that he can really be counted on at these swimming World Championships. “It was a great debut,” said the 24-year-old. “It has never worked so well over the 800 meters as it does today.” On Tuesday, Wellbrock set a national record time of 7:39.63 minutes in the 800-meter freestyle and brought the German Swimming Association their third medal at this World Championships.
«Get another color out of the pool here»
“It’s the third silver medal for the team,” Wellbrock said with satisfaction in the catacombs of the Duna Arena and added with a smile: “Maybe we can get another color out of the pool here, otherwise it’s boring.” The last three World Cup podiums for the German pool team were in 2015, when freestyle ace Paul Biedermann was still active.
Wellbrock was only beaten by the victorious Bobby Finke from the USA. Bronze went to Romanchuk. “At first I was a bit annoyed that I lost gold, even though the time was so fast,” said Wellbrock. “But still: I’m super happy with the German record.”
In the final, Romanchuk took the lead after about the middle of the race. Wellbrock, Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy and Finke formed the chasing trio. In the final sprint, Finke was the strongest, as in his Olympic victory last summer, but Wellbrock also swam well.
The special relationship with Romanchuk
Wellbrock has a special relationship with bronze winner Romantschuk. The two are not only colleagues and competitors, but also friends. After consultation with national coach Bernd Berkhahn, Wellbrock included the Ukrainian in his training group because of the war in his home country. “When two people from a training group swim onto the podium, that speaks for itself,” said Wellbrock. “Of course I’m happy for him.”
Romantschuk had already said in an emotional interview in Budapest: “If no German team had invited me, I wouldn’t be here.” At the award ceremony, he patted the Ukrainian coat of arms over his heart and cried. After the US anthem for Finke, the three medal winners smiled for the cameras.
A special silver medal for Wellbrock
For Wellbrock, his silver medal was also something special because it was his first medal at the Olympic Games or World Championships on this course. The exceptional swimmer, who trains with long-distance specialist Berkhahn in Magdeburg, was surprisingly eliminated in the preliminary heat at the last World Championships in South Korea. At the Tokyo Olympics, he finished fourth. A place on the podium is his “aspiration”, Wellbrock had formulated as a goal.
He did that and after gold over 1500 meters in the pool and ten kilometers in the open water in 2019 he was able to look forward to his third medal at the long track world championships. For the open water Olympic champion, the medal should only be the beginning in Hungary. “Now it’s time to regenerate. 1500 meters is my best hobby, »said Wellbrock on the fourth day of the competition in Budapest, where the Hungarian Kristof Milak improved his own world record in the 200 m butterfly in 1:50.34 minutes.
Wellbrock wants to defend his title and swim in the second half of the World Championships in Lupa Lake over five kilometers and with the relay for the podium. The “other color” could not just be gold.