Romanchuk and Wellbrock Both Break National Records in Stockholm

2019 SWIM OPEN STOCKHOLM

• Friday, April 12th – Monday, April 15th
• Eriksdalsbadet, Stockholm, Sweden
• LCM
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap
• Day 4 Prelims Recap
• Start Lists
• Results

On the final day of the Swim Open Stockholm on Monday, German swimmer Florian Wellbrock broke the German National Record in the men’s 800 meter freestyle.

Wellbrock swam a 7:43.03 in the event, which broke his own national record, from last year’s European Championships, of 7:45.60. In spite of his record-setting swim on Monday, Wellbrock wasn’t able to defend his title in Stockholm: last year, he won in a 7:46.85.

This year, he was beaten by Ukrainian Mykhaylo Romanchuk, who set a new Meet Record in 7:42.49 – about half-a-second ahead of Wellbrock. That swim was a new National Record for Romanchuk as well, breaking his old mark of 7:42.96 (also from the European Championships).

Comparative Splits:

As the table above shows, Romanchuk’s consistency through the middle is what carried him to both a new best time, and the win over Wellbrock, who had more ups-and-downs in his splitting, but did finish with a very fast 55.15 – a second faster than any of the other swims in the comparison by either swimmer.

The men’s 800 free, one of 3 new Olympic events being added to the schedule for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, continues to be a Euro-centric event. At the 2017 World Championships, 7 of the top 8 finishers were European. That group included Wellbrock (who has dropped almost 10 seconds since that swim), but not Romanchuk, who didn’t swim the 800, but took silver in the 1500, at that meet.

Those two now rank 1st and 2nd in the world, respectively, with 3 Italians behind them.