“I’m just learning to swim”
Instead of training and taking part in the open water competition in Paris, Wellbrock stayed in bed. The recovery phase was good for him, but it came at the wrong time. “Including the World Cup and the preparation for it, I haven’t trained properly for six or seven weeks now. You can see that very clearly in the water,” says Wellbrock and, after a week and a half of training, exaggeratedly compares himself to a beginner: “I’m just learning to swim again.”
His plans have thus been thrown overboard. He decided not to take part in a training camp in Mallorca in preparation for the European Championships in Rome. “I could have traveled to train there for three or four days. It’s better to sleep and train at home,” says the open water Olympic champion from Tokyo.
Wellbrock leaves open whether he even goes to the EM. Because the Magdeburger is always ambitious. “When I start, I want to win,” he says. Even at the continental championships. Coach Bernd Berkhahn had already declared after the World Championships that he didn’t even rule out five titles with five starts: “If you prepare perfectly and if he’s healthy.” That will not happen in Rome now, because Wellbrock cannot face this mammoth program like at the World Cup under the given circumstances. “Now I have to see what’s possible. But I’m definitely ruling out five starts like at the World Cup. If I start, we’ll definitely limit the starts, but that’s still being discussed,” says Wellbrock.