Florian Wellbrock collects one medal after the other at the swimming world championships. The Olympic champion was also successful in the fifth race.
Swimming star Florian Wellbrock won his fifth medal in the fifth World Championship race, but missed the historic title triple. The Olympic champion secured bronze in Budapest on the Olympic 10 km course after 1:51:11.2 hours in the photo finish.
The defending champion, who was the first open water swimmer in history to have won three gold medals at a World Championships, was 14.4 seconds behind the winner Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy. Silver went to Italy’s Domenico Acerenza. Niklas Frach ended up in seventh place.
Wellbrock’s balance sheet was a bit “ambivalent”: “Second title that I couldn’t defend, but I’m very happy with the bronze medal. I can go to the award ceremony with my head held high.”
Nevertheless, Wellbrock ended the title fights in Hungary’s metropolis with a historic overall success. It’s been 40 years since a German swimmer last won five gold medals at a world championship: Back then, “Albatros” Michael Groß had cleared it like that in Ecuador – but only in the pool. Kristin Otto won six women’s World Championship medals in Madrid in 1986.