Freiwasser Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock won his first medal at the swimming world championships in Budapest. The 24-year-old from Magdeburg secured silver in the top fielded final over 800 meters freestyle in a German record time of 7:39.63 minutes. Never before had a German swimmer won a medal at the World Championships on this stretch. Wellbrock was 27 hundredths of a second behind Olympic champion Bobby Finke from the USA. Bronze went to the Ukrainian double European champion Michailo Romantschuk, who has been training in Magdeburg since the beginning of the war.
“In the first one I was actually annoyed that I lost gold. But I’m super happy with the German record, it’s never worked out as well over the 800 meters as it does today,” said Wellbrock.
For the German Swimming Association (DSV) it was already the third precious metal of the title fights in the Duna Arena. Previously, Lukas Märtens (400m freestyle), who was eliminated in the 800m heat, and Anna Elendt (100m breaststroke) had each won silver. In the second World Cup final with German participation on Wednesday, Isabel Gose swam the 200-meter freestyle in eighth place. “I was quite good for the first 150 meters, then I lacked the energy,” said the sixth-placed athlete.
Wellbrock broke a small spell, because on the world stage he had not been able to win a medal in the 800 meter race before. At the previous World Championships in Gwangju, the double world champion had already been eliminated in the preliminary heat, at the Olympics in Tokyo he swam just short of the podium in fourth place.
