Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock missed a medal at the European Swimming Championships in Rome due to a lack of training after a corona infection.
The double world champion came in fifth in the final over 1500 m freestyle in the Foro Italico after 15:02.51 minutes. Gold went to the Ukrainian title holder Michailo Romantschuk, who is training with Wellbrock in Magdeburg because of the war in his home country.
He relegated the Italian world champion Gregorio Paltrinieri to silver, while Frenchman Damien Joly was third. Open water relay world champion Oliver Klemet came in eighth.
“After 250, 300 meters I realized that I couldn’t swim with the guys in front,” said Wellbrock on “ARD”: “For a while I thought I could at least save bronze, but that wasn’t possible. We knew , what we are getting into, now we have the result.”
Wellbrock contracted Corona after the World Championships in Budapest, where he was the first German swimmer to win five medals in 40 years.
The 24-year-old therefore initially decided not to start over 800 m in Rome in order to have more preparation time. “I’m glad Corona didn’t catch me until after the World Cup,” said Wellbrock: “In Budapest I showed what I can do.”