Fifteen kilometers north of Budapest lies a leisure oasis for stressed city dwellers, Lake Lupa, 100 hectares in size and a mere 26 degrees, ideal for cooling off in those sweltering hot days. The former quarry pond is actually divided into three areas, adapted to the needs of the stressed city dwellers. A section dedicated to water sports, wakeboarding, scuba diving, stand up paddling, flyboarding or hoverboarding. One, quite profane, for canoeing or rowing. And then there is the so-called Premium beach, capacity 7500 visitors, white sand, white loungers – including a children’s beach, with an adventure playground, swings and a trampoline.
But there is currently a fourth area: the open water competitions at the swimming world championships, a discipline in which the Germans are almost traditionally good. With twelve titles, all won in open water, Thomas Lurz from Würzburg is the most successful German World Cup swimmer. On Sunday afternoon, the team of the German Swimming Federation extended its golden record – Florian Wellbrock had won the 10-kilometer race at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
In the mixed relay over six kilometers, Wellbrock, who had won bronze in the 1500 meter freestyle the night before, won the next gold medal together with Oliver Klemet, Lea Boy and Leonie Beck. It is the first title and the fifth precious metal for the DSV at this World Cup, after silver and bronze for Wellbrock and second places for Anna Elendt and Lukas Märtens in the pool.
The fact that swimming in open water is a completely different discipline than swimming on the 50-meter lane was also seen in the leisure oasis by those bathers who otherwise have little to do with top-class sports. Almost a dozen boats accompanied the swimmers, who did their rounds in their relay, sometimes man against woman, sometimes the other way round. Photographers, lifeguards, the jury, they all drove alongside, and a huge drone also hovered over the lake.
Everyone had to go around several buoys in an oval course, and the fact that you can easily lose your bearings without lines, floor tiles, hall ceiling and all the other aids that are available in the pool was the undoing of four nations. The Greek Dimitrios Markos, the South Korean Jaehun Park, the South African Connor Buck and the Spaniard Maria de Valdes Alvarez chose the wrong way around the last buoy – and were promptly disqualified. Fina later announced that rule 6.1 was broken.
The trainer gives a lot of praise to “Freischwimmer” Wellbrock
And the Germans? Shortly before the award ceremony, Leonie Beck said that “at the beginning, I think, she swam a little detour”; According to Lea Boy, he almost took a fatal shortcut, “but then I realized it was going in the wrong direction and I found the way on my own”. Wellbrock took over as the final swimmer after Beck had had to let Wellbrock’s great rival Gregorio Paltrinieri pass by, among other things. “The tactic didn’t quite work out, we had hoped that Leonie could hand over with a small lead,” said national coach Bernd Berkhahn and praised Wellbrock: “He did it tactically masterfully today, with a really strong final sprint. He swam free. “
Was, at least according to his trainer, not satisfied with bronze over 1500 meters: Florian Wellbrock.
(Photo: Laci Perenyi/Imago)
On his parade course over 1500 meters freestyle, the 24-year-old defending champion from 2019 had only won bronze the night before in the pool of the Duna-Aréna, behind the Americans Bobby Finke and Paltrinieri, who set a new European record in 14:32.80 minutes . “Bobby just ate me up on the last track, he’s making waves, that’s unbelievable,” said Wellbrock, “that’s why I’m going out there very happy with the bronze medal.” However, he didn’t seem too happy. Berkhahn later countered Wellbrock’s statement: “He just came out of the water and says: ‘I haven’t exhausted myself and I could still swim.’ He was too focused on Bobby, they let Gregorio swim, that was a big mistake.”
Wellbrock then no longer made mistakes on Sunday in Lupa Lake, in which, as the drone images showed, a pretty splendor of algae was swimming around. “There was already a lot of green stuff on the way,” said Wellbrock, “but there are worse things than a few plants in the water. We did a great job, want to take the positive vibe with us and take a few more medals with us.” As early as Monday, the Germans can win the next precious metal and avoid algae and buoys without making a wrong turn: over the five-kilometer distance in Lupa Lake.
