Status: 06/26/2022 2:26 p.m
The German 4×1.5 kilometer relay won the gold medal in a sometimes chaotic open water race at the swimming world championships in Budapest.
The quartet of Lea Boy, Oliver Klemet, Leonie Beck and Florian Wellbrock arrived in Lupa Lake after 1:04:40.5 hours. The Hungarian hosts won silver, beating Italy in the photo finish.
Third medal for Wellbrock: “Didn’t expect it in advance”
“We’re very, very happy with it,” Wellbrock said. “We knew that we were in a very good position. But nevertheless: You couldn’t count on a medal, a gold one, in advance. Hungary, France and Italy are too strong for that.” The 24-year-old added: “We did a great job and we’re enjoying the award ceremony right away.”
Wellbrock claimed his third World Championships medal and second in 18 hours. He had previously won silver in the 800-meter freestyle and bronze in the 1500-meter freestyle at the pool competitions that ended on Saturday.
Wrong course underway – several teams disqualified
Boy started the race as the starting swimmer. The 22-year-old handed over to Klemet in sixth place, around two minutes behind the leaders. Klemet swam strong and then benefited from mistakes made by the competition. The teams from Greece, South Korea, South Africa and Spain, which were swimming in front at the time, were disqualified shortly after the first change. Apparently they had taken the wrong path.
Wellbrock secures gold as final swimmer
Klemet took the lead. Beck had a difficult time and had to defend himself against three strong swimmers from Hungary, Italy and France. When Wellbrock took over as final swimmer, he was fourth, but had contact with the top trio and swam with all his class to the world title.
At the past World Championships in South Korea, the German team with Boy, Sarah Köhler (now Wellbrock), Sören Meißner and Rob Muffels also won gold.
Medal hopes also in diving
At the start of the diving competitions, the newly formed duo Lars Rüdiger/Timo Barthel reached the final in synchronized diving from the three-meter board. Rüdier/Barthel both scored 383.07 points in the prelim and thus qualified fifth for the final on Sunday afternoon. China won the prelim ahead of Great Britain, France and Colombia. Until the end of last season, Rüdiger jumped with Patrick Hausding. The record European champion, who collected three Olympic medals, ended his career at the beginning of May.
The Berlin duo Pauline Pfeif and Christina Wassen reached the semifinals from the tower. Pfeif jumped into twelfth place in the prelim in the Duna Arena with 282 points. Wassen scored 272.05 points, which was enough for 16th place. The best 18 jumpers moved into the next round on Sunday evening.
Source: sportschau.de