The Magdeburg Olympic champion and double world champion Florian Wellbrock is part of the 19-man squad of the German Swimming Association (DSV) for the pool competitions at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan (July 14 to 30).
The World Cup runners-up Lukas Märtens (also from Magdeburg) and Anna Elendt (Frankfurt) complete the seeded trio of all German medal winners in the title fights in Budapest last year after the end of the national elimination phase last weekend.
The DSV entourage is almost twice as big as in 2022 in Hungary. The growth came about through the qualification of six DSV relays in seven Olympic disciplines, after only two German relays were there in Budapest.
For Fukuoka, the association only nominated active players who had fulfilled the qualification standards. Wellbrock and Märtens recently underlined their good form with world best times in Berlin despite their safe participation in the World Cup. A total of three German records were broken in the competitions.
“A good job has been done in the course of the season so far, otherwise the performance would not have been possible,” said national coach Bernd Berkhahn in his summary of the qualification phase at the nomination: “It is now important to prepare the World Cup in Japan just as meticulously in order to achieve top positions to also place well in the relay races in the individual races.”
DSV sports director Christian Hansmann hopes that Fukuoka will provide as much planning security as possible for participation in the Olympic relay competitions at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. “Our goal for Fukuoka is quite clearly to deliver the best possible relay times that can secure us Olympic tickets,” emphasized Hansmann.
The squad of the German Swimming Association (DSV)
Men: Luca Nik Armbruster, Ole Braunschweig (both Berlin), Eric Friese (Potsdam), Oliver Klemet, Lucas Matzerath (both Frankfurt), Lukas Märtens, Florian Wellbrock (both Magdeburg), Rafael Miroslaw (Hamburg), Josha Salchow (Heidelberg), Timo Sorgius (Leipzig), Peter Varjasi (Erlangen)
Women: Anna Elendt (Frankfurt), Isabel Gose (Magdeburg), Angelina Köhler, Lisa-Marie Finger, Leonie Kullmann, Nele Schulze (all Berlin), Nina Holt (Mönchengladbach), Laura Riedemann (Halle).