Swimming World Cup
Defending champion Wellbrock missed out on a medal in the open water
Florian Wellbrock started the medal fights in Qatar as defending champion. photo
© Hassan Ammar/AP
This is not how Florian Wellbrock imagined his World Cup debut in Qatar. The defending champion didn’t matter.
Defending champion Florian Wellbrock clearly missed out on a medal in the open water at the Swimming World Championships in Qatar.
The 26-year-old swam at the front in the ten-kilometer race, but only finished in 29th place. The Hungarian Kristóf Rasovszky secured victory in the port of Doha ahead of Marc-Antoine Olivier from France and bronze winner Hector Pardoe from Great Britain. The second German starter Oliver Klemet swam to eleventh place.
Wellbrock is an Olympic champion on this route. He had already secured his ticket for the games in Paris this summer thanks to his triumph at the last World Championships. Klemet, who came third in Japan in 2023, can also start planning for the highlight of the season.