Florian Wellbrock surprisingly missed the Olympic ticket for the 800 meter freestyle. The man from Magdeburg had to give way to his club and training colleague Oliver Klemet at the German swimming championships in Berlin. Although Wellbrock crossed the finish line in 7:50.82 minutes ahead of Klemet, he had the faster time of 7:46.03 minutes within the Olympic qualification cycle.
This means that Klemet will start the 800 meters in Paris alongside Sven Schwarz, who has a personal right to start thanks to his fourth place at the World Championships in Doha.
Wellbrock, open water Olympic champion over 10 kilometers, had secured two starts at the Olympics thanks to his World Championship medals in open water and over 1500 meters freestyle and concentrated entirely on the 800 meters in his championship preparation. He was accordingly satisfied after the race: “I’m disappointed and at a loss because this time doesn’t correspond to what I swim in training. In fact, perplexity outweighs disappointment,” said Wellbrock, who still thinks he has a chance of winning a medal in Paris.
Gose swims a personal best
The 26-year-old praised his conqueror Klemet highly. “The boy’s development is unbelievable. He doesn’t necessarily have the ideal physical conditions. But what he offers from 400 meters to 10 kilometers is also motivation for me in some way, because what he gets out of his body is to some extent inspiring ” said Wellbrock.
His Magdeburg training colleagues Isabel Gose and Leonie Märtens represent the German team not only in the 400 meter freestyle course, but also in the 1500 meter freestyle. The seeded Gose swam a personal best time of 15:52.02 minutes. Joshua Salchow, who trains in Australia, confirmed that he is currently the best German sprinter in the 100 meter freestyle. “I think I showed again today that the association can rely on me,” emphasized Salchow.
