A short “Moin”, that’s all Florian Wellbrock wanted to say in the catacombs of Marine Messe Fukuoka. His coach, on the other hand, found quite clear words.
“It was actually a mandatory task,” said Bernd Berkhahn after Wellbrock’s completely surprising lead-out at the swimming world championships over 800 meters freestyle. “He’s also a bit helpless and can’t explain how that happened.” Actually, Wellbrock had the right to swim for gold in the World Cup final this Wednesday. Now he has to watch. For him, history repeats itself.
Wellbrock also failed in the 800-meter race at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Even then he was considered a medal candidate and came decorated with gold from the open water competitions.
“Not satisfactory”
This time he even crowned himself double world champion in the sea, but again he didn’t manage to switch to the pool competitions. “That’s not satisfactory,” he told ZDF right after his race at the edge of the pool. With a white towel wrapped around his neck, he crossed the interview zone and disappeared for a swim without further comment.
“I can’t explain that,” said long-distance national coach Berkhahn on the performance of his best athlete. “He was recovered, everything relaxed, no problem. And then he doesn’t really get into his rhythm and in the end there is a time that is seven hundredths too slow.” The 52-year-old added: “We have to deal with that first.”
Wellbrock clocked a time of 7:45.87 in Fukuoka and finished ninth. He was seven hundredths of a second short of eighth place, which would have been enough for the finale. The 25-year-old missed his best time by more than six seconds.
Wellbrock had subordinated a lot to the race. After his victories over ten kilometers and five kilometers extra, the open water Olympic champion voluntarily decided not to start with the relay, thereby missing another chance for a medal. Regeneration and training for the more prestigious indoor races were his priority. Wellbrock was considered a co-favourite. He had traveled to Japan as Vice World Champion on the second-longest pelvic distance.
Berkhan ratlos
“Of course I can explain that he swam bad technique, swam very complex and things like that,” said Berkhahn. “But why he did it and why he didn’t come out, I can’t explain.”
Wellbrock’s Magdeburg teammate Lukas Märtens was at a loss as to his buddy’s performance. “We’ve had a very good training camp. Things have been going really well in the last few days,” said the 21-year-old. “He really seems very stable. But you never know what’s going on inside a person. Only he can know that.”
Märtens, who has already won bronze in the 400 meters, now carries the medal hopes of the German swimmers in the final this Wednesday (from 1 p.m. CEST). “I think I can speak of a very solid lead,” he said after his third place. “You can look towards the medals in the final.” Favorites are Australian Samuel Short and defending champion Bobby Finke from the USA.
Wellbrock, on the other hand, hopes that history will now be repeated a second time. Four years ago, after his preliminary debacle, a grandiose comeback followed. Wellbrock was crowned world champion over 1500 meters. He can still succeed in Fukuoka. “He just announced that in the warm-up area,” said Berkhahn. “But that’s a little comfort to me right now.”
Gose is sixth
On the other hand, he must have been satisfied with Isabel Gose. Unlike Wellbrock, the 21-year-old swam 1500 meters faster than ever before in a race over this distance. In 15:54.58 minutes, she took sixth place in the confident victory of US swimming star Katie Ledecky. Breaststroke swimmer Lucas Matzerath reached the final over 50 meters in fourth place and counts on chances for a medal on Wednesday.
