Today, the German Swimming Association (DSV) published an overview about the last step in the nomination procedure for German swimmers to qualify for the World Championships in Kazan in August. The “German Open” will take place in Essen from July 1st to July 4th. 12 Swimmers, seven women and five men, must confirm their results from the German National Championships to finally get the ticket for Kazan. German swimmers had to swim qualification times at National Championships in prelims and in finals and afterwards they must confirm these standards at another selected meet (Mare Nostrum tour, Junior European Championships, German Youth Nationals, Golden Tour Nancy or now at German Open.). German national head coach Henning Lambertz said this in an inverview with SwimSwam in April: “I noticed in earlier days that the times German swimmers reached at the season highlights, very often were much slower than at the trials before. Statistics said that 8 of 10 swimmers performed worse at the big international meets. So our nomination procedure is an attempt to keep the performances on a good level.”
Exceptions are Paul Biedermann, Steffen Deibler and Marco Koch who are pre-qualified for the World Championships because of their excellent and stable performances over the last years. Biedermann and Koch are not going to attend the German Open – Koch will race at “Open de France de Natation” in Vichy, France, next weekend to test his form against international competitors.
These swimmers have to confirm their achievements from the German Nationals:
Dorothea Brandt (SG Essen), Sarah Köhler (SG Frankfurt), Johanna Friedrich (SC Magdeburg), Isabelle Härle (SG Essen), Lisa Graf (SG Neukölln), Vanessa Grimberg (SVR Stuttgart) and Franziska Hentke (SC Magdeburg) and on men’s side Clemens Rapp (SV Nikar Heidelberg), Hendrik Feldwehr (SG Essen), Kevin Wedel (SG EWR Rheinhessen-Mainz), Philip Heintz (SV Nikar Heidelberg) and Alexander Kunert (SV Gelnhausen).
The German Swimming Asscociation has a so called “long list“ with all of the swimmers who have already gotten the ticket to Kazan – or have made their pre-nomination so far. Three swimmers who weren’t able to swim the required standards at Nationals are on this list: Alexander Kunert, Philip Heintz and Christian Diener. “Philip Heintz and Christian Diener are exceptional cases because they won silver medals at last year’s European Championships on Olympic distances.” explained Henning Lambertz this decision. Diener (Potsdamer SV) already made the final qualification like the following swimmers did:
Annika Bruhn (SSG Saar Max Ritter), Leonie Antonia Beck (SV Würzburg 05), Jenny Mensing (SC Wiesbaden 1911), Sonnele Öztürk (Wfr. Spandau 04), Alexandra Wenk (SG Stadtwerke München) und Theresa Michalak (SG Bayer) and Paul Biedermann (SV Halle), Steffen Deibler (Hamburger Schwimm-Club), Marco Koch (DSW Damstadt), Florian Vogel (SG Stadtwerke München), Jacob Heidtmann (ST Stadtwerke Elmshorn), Sören Meißner, Ruwen Straub (beide SV Würzburg 05), Carl Louis Schwarz, Christian vom Lehn (SG Essen).
Backstroke specialist Sonnele Öztürk only could stay on the roster if Lisa Graf doesn’t swim the qualification times in Essen because Sonnele only was the 3rd swimmer who was able to reach the nomination time.
It will be interesting to see how the German top swimmers will perform in Essen – the long course pool isn’t as fast as the Berlin pool is and Germany expects a heatwave with temperatures up to 104 degrees F – not the best conditions to swim fast indoors.
