Swimming World Championship
Wellbrock wins silver in the 800-meter freestyle with a record
Second over 800 meters freestyle: Florian Wellbrock in action. Photo: Petr David Josek/AP/dpa
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It also goes over 800 meters. Florian Wellbrock gets silver at the World Cup on his previous worry distance. The German pool team has now won more medals than at the two previous World Cups.
Florian Wellbrock won the silver medal at the swimming world championships and brought the German team their third medal in Budapest.
The 24-year-old swam the 800-meter freestyle after 7:39.63 minutes – a German swimmer has never been so fast over this distance. Wellbrock only had to admit defeat to the victorious Bobby Finke from the USA. Bronze went to Mikhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine. The last three World Cup podiums for the German pool team were in 2015, when freestyle ace Paul Biedermann was still active.
A place on the podium was the “demand”
For exceptional swimmer Wellbrock it was the first medal at the Olympic Games or World Championships on this route. Born in Bremen, who trains with national coach Bernd Berkhahn in Magdeburg, he surprisingly lost the 800-meter run at the last World Cup in South Korea. At the Tokyo Olympics, he finished fourth. A place on the podium is his “aspiration”, Wellbrock had formulated as a goal. For the final he qualified as the second fastest.
In the final, Romanchuk took the lead after about the middle of the race. Wellbrock, Gregorio Paltrinieri 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.
Wellbrock wants to defend his titles
Wellbrock has a special relationship with bronze winner Romantschuk. The two are not only colleagues and competitors, but also friends. After consultation with Berkhahn, Wellbrock included the Ukrainian in his training group because of the war in his home country. “If a German team hadn’t invited me, I wouldn’t be here,” said Romantschuk in Budapest.
After gold over 1500 meters in the pool and ten kilometers in open water in 2019, Wellbrock was able to celebrate his third medal overall at the long track world championships. For the open water Olympic champion, the medal should only be the beginning in Hungary. 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.