With a spectacular final sprint, Leonie Beck won gold over 10 kilometers in open water at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Saturday (07/15/2023) – as a bonus, she managed to qualify for the Olympics.
As the national anthem sounded, Leonie Beck looked for the German flag – and found it with a grin on a screen on the roof of a van.
It was the only time that the new open water world champion briefly lost her bearings: In the sea off Fukuoka, the 26-year-old had stalked her competitors for more than ten kilometers and then overtook them with a spectacular final sprint.
“I swam for my life”
“I was the one who wanted it the most. I swam for my life”, said Beck, who couldn’t explain exactly how she passed Australian Chelsea Gubecka and American Katie Grimes at the last buoy. In the camera images, she initially moved to the right, but in the next long shot she was suddenly two lengths ahead.
“That’s how I perceived it too”, said the European champion from Rome, laughing. After a good half of the distance, the Würzburg native, who has been living and training in Italy for two years, was 17.9 seconds behind in 17th place – no need to panic.
Forces allocated optimally
“I didn’t want to waste so much energy in the beginning”she explained: “Everything went well, I managed my strength well, everything was fine. I did everything right tactically.” After the strong finish and the attack 4.1 seconds ahead of Gubecka, Beck was already thinking about a year ahead. “Being world champion is something very special”she said, “But qualifying for the Olympics now was all I wanted here.”
As one of the first three, she already bought the ticket for Paris 2024 – she can approach the next World Cup in February in a relaxed manner. Her Würzburg club colleague Lea Boy, on the other hand, has to invest everything: after seventh place in the Momochi Seaside Park, 38.9 seconds behind, the 23-year-old gets a second chance at the Olympics in Qatar.
Hansmann is pleased with the “made-to-measure start”
The fact that the German anthem sounded immediately after the first medal decision at the World Championships was rated by competitive sports director Christian Hansmann from the German Swimming Association (DSV). “Made-to-measure start”. The former open water swimmer didn’t know when that was last.
For Beck, who has crawled into the absolute world class since the Corona forced break, Hansmann only found the highest praise: “She pulled her own boot through, swam her own tactic, it paid off.”
In Italian training group changed
The Würzburg native made an enormous leap in performance after her fifth place at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, after which she switched to the Italian training group around superstar Gregorio Paltrinieri just outside Rome. “She’s training in the sea in Italy, that’s good for her”said Hansman. “It’s something new, you develop further” said Beck herself about her move to Ostia, “I have a super cool training group, it’s my second family.”
Even if she has already achieved her most important goal in Japan, she wants to further expand her World Cup record. “All that comes now is bonus”said Beck, who has won four medals at world championships so far, “But I’ll continue to give 110 percent.” Over five kilometers and in the relay she is still at the start.
Mixed duo: tenth place from the tower
Pauline Pfeif and Alexander Lube took tenth place in mixed synchronized jumping from the tower. The 21-year-old water jumper from Berlin and her five-year-old synchronous partner from Aachen achieved 256.38 points with five jumps on Saturday in Fukuoka, Japan.
As expected, the duo of Feilong Wang and Ziaqi Zhang from China secured victory with 339.54 points. Silver went to Jose Balleza Isaias and Viviana del Angel Peniche of Mexico with 313.14 points. The two Japanese Hiroki Ito and Minami Itahashi took bronze with 305.34 points.