Florian Wellbrock Swims World-Leading 14:40 in the 1500 Free on Day 1 in Magdeburg

Gothaer Insurance Cup – Magdeburg

• March 31, 2023 – April 2, 2023
• Magdeburg, Germany
• Long Course Meters (50 meters) – Timed Finals
• Live Streaming
• Psych Sheets/Entry Lists
• Live Results

Germany is kicking off its World Championship qualifying this weekend in Magdeburg at the Gothaer Insurance Cup. This is the first opportunity for swimmers to clear the standards for the upcoming World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. Swimmers have until April 23 to clear qualifying times.

DSV Qualifying Standards:

Relays

Athletes who finished in the top 8 in an Olympic event at last year’s World Championship in Budapest are pre-nominated, though only one of the available two slots in each event can be pre-nominated. That list of pre-nominated swimmers includes:

• Lukas Martens – 200/400 free
• Florian Wellbrock – 800/1500 free
• Lucas Matzerath – 100 breast
• Anna Elendt – 100 breast
• Isabel Gose – 200/400//800 free

The most-anticipated race of the meet was the men’s 1500 freestyle on day 1, where the Olympic bronze medalist Florian Wellbrock led a field that included rising young talents Lukas Martens and Oliver Klemet.

All three cleared the World Championship standard, led by Wellbrock, who won in a World-leading 14:40.18.

“Thank God it’s all sorted out. It’s going well again. I can now say with a clear conscience that I’m in good health again,” said Wellbrock.

Wellbrock won 5 World Championship medals in Budapest last summer, including two in open water, but struggled at the European Championships after a coronavirus infection.

Followed by Martens’ 14:55.45, Germans now hold the top two times in the world this season. Oliver Klemet was 3rd on Friday (14:59.06) and ranks 5th in the world this season.

Martens said after the race that his priority was to be under the World Championship standard, but that he wasn’t quite as good as he’s been in the past this weekend. His training group recently came out of a four-week altitude training camp in Spain and so their target is about three weeks away.

In spite of those times, none of the three are guaranteed qualification. Instead, the placements will be awarded at the end of the qualification based on a ranking – with Sven Schwarz, for example, planning to race at the Berlin Swim Open from April 21-23.

But they were not the first to beat the standard on the day. Isabel Gose became the first to clear the standard in the qualifying period. She swam 8:23.03 to dip under the 8:26.71 mark, though she was pre-nominated via her 6th place finish at last year’s World Championships.

She says she was eager to prove her form, though – and she did that by swimming seven-tenths better than that time that pre-qualified her from last year’s World Championships.

“I want to prove that I don’t just live from the successes of the past year and that I’m worthy of starting at the World Cup,” Gose said after the swim.

Her best time of 8:21.79 is from the Tokyo Olympics.

Other Day 1 Results from Magdeburg:

• Angelina Kohler knocked three-quarters of a second off her personal best in the 50 fly, swimming 25.75. That leave her just .07 seconds away from Aliena Schmidkte’s 2017 German Record in the event. With a best time of 57.85 in the 100 fly, that swim gives her a great shot of hitting the World Championship standard later in the meet.
• Ukrainian Mykhailo Romanchuk didn’t compete in that show-stopping 1500 free, which is a primary event for him, but did race in the 400 IM, winning in 4:28.32. He’s part of the Magdeburg-trained group along with Wellbrock and Martens.