Isabel Gose won the bronze medal in the 400 meter freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Qatar. The 21-year-old clocked a German record time of 4:02.39 minutes in Doha. She only had to admit defeat to world champion Erika Fairweather from New Zealand and Li Bingjie from China.
“I’m super relieved. I said before that I wouldn’t get a chance like that again. There aren’t any strong girls here and it was important to take this step forward,” said Gose. She swam her own race. “I’ve been trying for ages to swim under 4:03 minutes, and now I’ve finally succeeded. We know what we have to pay attention to in preparation for the Olympics,” said Gose.
In the Aspire Dome, she fulfilled her dream of the first World Cup medal of her career and secured a place at the Olympics in Paris. It was the second precious metal for the German association after Lukas Märtens had also recently won bronze in the 400 meter freestyle.
Gose recently had gastrointestinal problems after a training camp in South Africa and had to take a break. “That really drained our reserves,” she said after her preliminary run in the morning. “I also had weight loss. You just feel dirty.” Gose added: “That really annoyed me because I had gotten through so well before. I was so fit after the training camp.” Her strong final showed that she was able to maintain a lot of this fitness despite illness.
