In a chaotic world championship race with four disqualifications, Germany’s open water relay wins gold. A new jumping duo celebrates bronze.
Florian Wellbrock held on to the stop bar and stretched his index finger in the air. With a strong final sprint, the German model swimmer won the first gold medal at the World Championships in Budapest for the 4×1500 meter mixed relay in open water.
Together with his teammates Lea Boy, Oliver Klemet and Leonie Beck, he then celebrated success on the podium, which was also important for him personally.
After silver over 800 meters freestyle and only 18 hours after bronze over 1500 meters behind the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri and Bobby Finke from the USA, there was now the first longed-for gold. “The set of medals is now complete and everything that comes now is on top. It’s nice to have bronze, silver and gold together,” said Wellbrock.
Chaotic race in Lupa Lake
In what can certainly be described as chaotic competition in the 26-degree warm Lupa Lake on the outskirts of Budapest, Boy had already given the Germans the lead on the first lap. Also because four nations blurred at the last buoy, took a shortcut and were then disqualified.
Klemet extended the lead before Beck fell slightly behind again against three strong men. “I wanted to keep the gap as small as possible”, said Beck, who came on fourth eight seconds back.
Coach Berkhahn: “He did a great job”
Wellbrock made up the decisive time, always swam inside lane to fly away from everyone in the final sprint. “It was really nice to be able to do the sprint without Bobby Finke”, said Wellbrock and his trainer Bernd Berkhahn praised: “He did that brilliantly, tactically he was very, very good. He couldn’t be kept for either Hungary or Italy. That’s when you realized what he was capable of.”
On his parade course over 1,500 meters in the pool, Wellbrock had made a gamble. “He focused too much on Bobby Finke. That was a bit too cautious. And they let Gregorio swim. That was a mistake on both of them,” criticized national coach Berkhahn.
Berkhahn praises pool swimmers
The Italian went from the start, plowing through the Duna Arena basin at breakneck speed and quickly putting a three-length lead between himself and the competition. Some of his split times were more than three seconds under the world record. “I knew that Gregorio would be quick, but I didn’t think he would be that fast,” said Wellbrock.
At the end, Berkhahn praised the performance of the ten German pool swimmers who competed in Budapest, who achieved four medals and numerous final placements and had achieved the best result since 2009. “It was unbelievable. Especially the last day. All the athletes who hadn’t left yet were in the finals. I don’t know if that’s ever happened in the DSV before,” said Berkhahn.
Water jumpers Rüdiger/Barthel get bronze
Encouraged by the successful performances of the swimmers, the water jumpers also started the World Championships with a surprising success. Lars Rüdiger and Timo Barthel won bronze in synchronized diving from the three-meter board behind China and Great Britain. This was particularly surprising because the duo has only been training together since December. Barthel stepped in as the successor to record European champion Patrick Hausding, as he ended his career.
Synchronized jumpers Timo Barthel (right) and Lars Rüdiger (left) in action
“It’s a dream come true for me,” said Barthel. “I don’t think I’ve been able to sleep for two weeks because I always dream of this medal. And to have managed to do that with Lars is just unbelievable for me,” said the 26-year-old. National coach Lutz Buschkow was happy “that Patrick’s footsteps are at least a little filled. It was a nice, exciting competition and a perfect start for the water jumpers.”