Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock was absolutely convincing in his first appearance at the World Championships, while Vice World Champion Lukas Märtens’ dream of a second medal has already burst.
In the eagerly awaited heat of the 800 m freestyle, only one of the two German swimming stars was able to secure a place in the final. “It was rock solid“, said Wellbrock. As the second in the heat (7:44.80), the double world champion of 2019 only had to admit defeat to the Ukrainian Michailo Romantschuk, who has been training with him and Märtens in Magdeburg since the beginning of the war, by five hundredths of a second.
Märtens still starts over 200 meters
Märtens, who had won silver over half the distance at the start of the World Championships, collapsed completely after about half the distance in the last heat. In the end, the 20-year-old stayed almost 14 seconds above the German record he swam in April.
“It was just empty in the tank, there was really nothing more“, explained Märtens. Because of his 200 m final on Monday evening (20.06.22), the world’s best of the year hadn’t tacticed and was taken out early. “There’s no use playing poker“, said Martens: “I wanted to get to the final, but it wasn’t enough.”
Gose and Matzerath in the semifinals
Märtens’ girlfriend Isabel Gose, on the other hand, made it easily into the semi-finals after her fifth place in the 400 m freestyle over half the distance. The 20-year-old finished ninth in the heat with one for her”very neat” Time (1:57.94). Breaststroke swimmer Lucas Matzerath (22) has also come a step closer to his second World Championship final. One day after sixth place in the 100 m, the Frankfurter qualified halfway in a personal best time (27.01 ) as fifth for the semifinals.