The European Championship ended prematurely for Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock. His teammates win three more medals: double gold for Isabel Gose and Lukas Märtens, bronze for Henning Mühlleitner.
Isabel Gose wanted to jump into the pool again when, shortly after her European Championship triumph, her friend Lukas Märtens also scratched for gold. “I would have loved to have run through to him straight into the water, but they didn’t let me through,” said the new European champion in the 400m freestyle, laughing. On the screen, the 20-year-old watched her partner repeat her success on the same route nine minutes later.
Märtens also took a close look at his partner. “I saw how solidly she did it and took an example from that,” said the 20-year-old. The interaction worked perfectly: The Magdeburg couple brought the German swimmers a double gold finish at the end of the race in the Foro Italico – and Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock, for whom the European Championships had already ended, cheered in the stands.
Märtens is scratching the world record
Gose had to fight hard in the final sprint to save a narrow lead over the local hero Simona Quadarella after 4:04.13 minutes in the noise of the 5000 Italian fans and to complete her EM medal set. Märtens took the lead after 150 m and never gave it up. With 100 m to go, the silver medalist over 800 m was even below the world record of Paul Biedermann, at the end the clock stopped at 3:42.50. Olympic fourth-placed Henning Mühlleitner came in third and grabbed the eighth medal for the German swimmers, who won two golds, two silvers and four bronzes.
Finally, there is a celebration at the end. “Today something is definitely going to happen,” announced Märtens. And Gose revealed with a laugh: “Maybe there will be a party in the room and in bed.”
The men’s and women’s medley relays as seventh and eighth had nothing to do with the awarding of medals – neither did Ole Braunschweig, third in the 50 m sprint, as seventh in the 100 m backstroke.
Wellbrock had already pulled the emergency brake in the morning after his corona disease and fifth place in the 1500 m freestyle and canceled his open water starts. “Now mental and physical health comes first,” said the double world champion, already slightly sniffed, “you don’t have to take the risk.”
Wellbrock focuses on World Cup in Japan
The gold medal winner from Tokyo wants to avoid the races at the Lido di Ostia, which have already been postponed by one day due to strong winds and high waves. “It’s very warm,” said Wellbrock, “the continuous exertion of one or two hours would have cost a lot of energy.” From now on, the concentration of the new season with the World Cup next year in Japan applies.
His club colleague Gose played the leading role in Rome – much to the delight of the national coach. “The timing of this European Championship was very suitable for her,” said Bernd Berkhahn. “She had the opportunity to swim free and was able to make up for the disappointment of the World Championships.” In Budapest she had convinced as the best and second best European over 400 and 800 m, but missed the podium both times.
All in all, the national coach drew a mixed conclusion about the European Championship: “The final placements were okay, the medal haul was okay, but you definitely can’t be satisfied with many individual performances. It’s still clear that we have big deficits in the association, especially in the short distances .”