Three months after his bitter defeats in Paris, Florian Wellbrock wants to attack again at the Short Course World Championships. The reasons for the performance at the Olympics are clear.
No one has ever swum as fast as Florian Wellbrock over the 1500 m freestyle in the 25 m pool – and yet the world record holder has to watch his strongest competitors at the Short Course World Championships in Budapest. Because the open water Olympic champion in Tokyo has to compete in one of the “slow” races at the end of the morning program (12:04 p.m.) on Tuesday and then wait seven hours to see whether he can possibly get on the podium.
No heats at the World Cup
“It’s a little adventure for Christmas,” said national coach Bernd Berkhahn about this unusual constellation. The background: At the World Championships in the Duna Arena there are no heats on the long crawl routes, all times count in the final. And because Wellbrock hasn’t swum a short course race in a year and a half, he had to enter his time from the 50m pool – which is almost 30 seconds worse than his 2021 short course world record.
Florian Wellbrock really puts his foot down in every session. (archive image)
Berkhahn: “He started with 110 percent from day one”
For the 27-year-old, the World Championships in Hungary, three months after the Olympic debacle in Paris, are a further step back into everyday swimming, but also in dealing with the huge disappointment. Wellbrock took a seven-week break after the Summer Games, longer than ever before. “Then he got back into it from day one with 110 percent,” reported Berkhahn, “and pushed hard in every session.” At the Open Water World Cup in Saudi Arabia in November, Wellbrock returned impressively with victories over 10 km and in the relay.
National swimming coach Bernd Berkhahn praises his protégé.
National coach: Reasons for Paris bankruptcy “remain between us”
But the Paris chapter is not yet closed. “It will never be over, it’s part of his career now,” said Berkhahn about his long-time protégé. “It’s about: How does he deal with it? Can he draw positive energy from it? At the moment he’s taking a very good path. ” Wellbrock, who swam well behind in both the pool and open water after gold and bronze in Tokyo and a total of nine titles at the World and European Championships in Paris, had already emphasized shortly after the Olympics: “Anyone who knows me knows that giving up is a foreign word for me me. Los Angeles 2028 is my next big goal.”
The reasons that Wellbrock and Berkhahn identified for the disappointing performance in Paris “remain between us,” said the national coach. “We are trying to position him more securely so that we are not surprised again, but there is still a long way to go.”
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