Swimming World Cup
Out in advance: Wellbrock is far from Olympic form
Eliminated in the preliminary round of the 800 meter freestyle: Florian Wellbrock. photo
© Lee Jin-man/AP
Florian Wellbrock is still not getting going in Doha. After his open water fiasco, the best German swimmer in recent years completely failed his first start in the pool.
As the defending champion, the Bremen native was unable to intervene in the fight for the medals twice in the open water. The best German swimmer in recent years is a long way from his desired Olympic form.
“Surprisingly slow,” Wellbrock said of his time, which was around 8.5 seconds slower than his personal best on the track. “I thought we were going a little faster.” Wellbrock, who didn’t know at the time that he was leaving, added: “There might have been a little bit left in it.”
Black qualified for the final
Things went much better for Sven Schwarz than for him. The second German starter qualified for the final on Wednesday in 7:46.95 minutes. The fastest of the heats was the Italian Luca De Tullio in 7:46.52 minutes.
In the morning session of the third day of the pool competitions at the Aspire Dome, Melvin Imoudu and Lucas Matzerath reached the evening semi-finals in the 100 meter breaststroke. The day after Angelina Köhler won the world championship title in the 100 meter butterfly, Imoudu came sixth in the heats in 26.91 seconds. Matzerath finished 13th in 27.40 seconds. Nic Fink from the USA swam the fastest time in 26.66. The 30-year-old won the gold medal over twice the distance on Monday.