Even Florian Wellbrock was “very positively surprised”. The time in which he crawled to victory at the World Cup in Berlin was not what the Olympic swimming champion expected after his training deficit.
Beforehand, he “imagined swimming under 14:30 minutes,” reported Wellbrock. His coach Bernd Berkhahn then said: “Okay wow, that’s maybe a bit ambitious.” In the end, the 25-year-old triumphed on the short course over the 1500 m freestyle in 14:25.41 minutes and he was “very, very satisfied” with that.
Corona threw Wellbrock off track
Because most recently, after his historic five-pack of medals at the World Cup, a corona disease threw him off track, and then the training had to be a little behind because of the basic training for the Bundeswehr sports promotion group. Wellbrock had therefore emphasized in advance that no best times were “within reach”.
And so, as expected, the man from Magdeburg was far from his world record (14:06.88) on his parade route, but Wellbrock wants to go back to these spheres. In an international comparison, the time in Berlin is “not that long”, especially when you look at his record: “That’s why we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
Swimming world championships and the Olympics as a goal
Next year, the World Cup will take place in Fukuoka, Japan (July 14 to 30, 2023), and the 2024 Olympic Games are also casting their shadows. The full focus is now on the two highlights, so Wellbrock will not be attending the short course World Championships in Melbourne (December 13th to 18th).
The Olympic qualification for Paris has “priority”, a long trip to Australia including a time difference is “difficult”, explained Wellbrock. In addition, the focus is on training after his corona-related failure. This also applies to the European champions Isabel Gose and Lukas Märtens, who, like Wellbrock, had completed their basic training. They also want to skip the World Cup.
Märtens was eliminated in Berlin, among other things, over the 400 and 200 m freestyle as well as Wellbrock in the preliminary heat. Märtens said he had to keep working hard on “the turns and the start” on the short course. The 20-year-old and Gose had won European Championship gold over 400 m on the long track.
Gose secured World Cup bronze over this distance in the capital, Sarah Wellbrock was eliminated in the preliminary heat when she made her comeback on the international stage. The Olympic third over 1500 m had recently concentrated on her law studies and saw the World Cup as a “position determination”. The most important thing for the 28-year-old is “to get back in shape” after the long break.