Florian Wellbrock won the silver medal in the 800 meter freestyle at the swimming world championships.
In a dramatic final sprint, Wellbrock was only just beaten by American Bobby Finke (7:39:36 minutes). Ukraine’s Mikhailo Romanchuk secured bronze.
Wellbrock had been in third or fourth place in the field for a long time before finally turning up the heat. With his time of 7:39:63 it wasn’t quite enough for gold. After all, he improved the German record.
“In the first one, I was actually angry that I lost gold. But I’m super happy with the German record, it’s never worked out so well over the 800 meters as it does today.”said Wellbrock.
Third World Cup medal for German team
After silver for Lukas Märtens over 400 meters freestyle and for Anna Elendt over 100 meters breaststroke, it was the third medal for the German pool team at this World Championships. The last time there was so much precious metal was in 2015.
For open water Olympic champion Wellbrock it was the first medal at world championships or Olympic Games in the 800 meter distance. Born in Bremen, who trains in Magdeburg, he won gold over 1,500 meters in the pool and ten kilometers in open water at the last World Championships.
Gose swims in 8th place in the final
Immediately afterwards, Isabel Gose was eighth in the 200-meter freestyle. As expected, the 20-year-old long-distance specialist was unable to take part in the fight for the medals and clocked in after 1:57.38 minutes. Yang Junxuan of China secured the title in 1:54.92 minutes. Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan took silver, bronze went to Tang Muhan of China.
Gose was in the finals for the second time in these title fights. The Magdeburg native was the only European to finish fifth in the 400-meter freestyle final
No medals on Wednesday
There will definitely be no precious metal for Germany on Wednesday. No DSV athlete could qualify for the finals.
Synchronized swimmer Marlene Bojer, on the other hand, is in the final for the third time in these title fights. In the solo competition of the free program, she is fighting for the confirmation of this result as a tenth in the pre-competition.