Swimming World Cup
Sven Schwarz celebrates Olympic ticket: Missed medal doesn’t matter
Sven Schwarz got his ticket to the Olympics in the 800 meter freestyle. photo
© Hassan Ammar/AP/dpa
Even without the precious metal, Sven Schwarz has reason to be happy at the World Swimming Championships. In recent years he has had a difficult time with strong competition from Florian Wellbrock. Now he is fulfilling a dream.
Sven Schwarz cheered as if he had just become world champion. Fourth place, so often described as thankless, brought great feelings of happiness to the freestyle swimmer.
“A medal doesn’t really matter to me at the moment. The main thing is that the ticket is safe,” said the 22-year-old, looking at what he achieved Olympic qualification in the 800 meter freestyle. “The fact that I managed to do that is a dream for every athlete. It’s a dream come true. I’m just happy.” If Black had finished fifth, he would have had to continue fighting for a starting place in Paris.
In a thrilling race he finished in 7:44.29 minutes. He only had to give way to world champion Daniel Wiffen from Ireland, Australian Elijah Winnington and bronze winner Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy. Only 13 hundredths of a second separated Black from fifth place.
Black after Wellbrock-Aus in focus
Classic car fan Schwarz has already hinted at his great talent several times in recent years. His problem, however, was that open water Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock and Lukas Märtens were usually two world-class competitors ahead of him on his routes and occupied the German starting positions. Because Wellbrock had already been eliminated in the preliminary round and Märtens decided not to start on the long distances in Doha, the focus at his first World Championships was now on black.
The Hanoverian jubilantly raised his arm in the water in the Aspire Dome and pointed to his coach Emil Guliyev. “We’ve been through so much together,” Schwarz said. Before the last 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, a corona infection prevented a realistic chance of qualification.
Matzerath fifth in the 50 meter breaststroke
Unlike Schwarz, breaststroke swimmer Lucas Matzerath has already gained experience at the Olympics. In the World Cup final over 50 meters he took fifth place in 26.80 seconds. Sam Williamson from Australia was crowned world champion.
After German athletes were celebrated on the podium on the first three days of competition in pool swimming, the award ceremonies took place for the first time without German participation. In addition to Wiffen and Williamson, Siobhan Bernadette Haughey from Hong Kong also set highlights with her victory in the 200 meter freestyle and the Japanese Tomoru Honda with gold in the 200 meter butterfly.
This Thursday Märtens is the only German starter. The multi-talented 22-year-old wants to reach the semi-finals of the 200 meter backstroke in the morning and the final in the evening. Märtens won bronze in the 400 meter freestyle on Sunday and took fourth place in the half distance two days later.