German SC Nationals: Hentke and Kunert performed well in Berlin

International German Short Course Champinships 2018

• Thursday, December 13th – Sunday, December 16th
• Berlin
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While 15 of the German topswimmers attend the Short Course World Championship at the moment, many new German National Champions have to be found during the next four days.

But with Florian Wellbrock, Franziska Hentke and youngsters Isabel Gose and Johannes Hintze, there is a lot of potential for fast performances in Berlin. Florian Wellbrock won the gold medal in the 1500 m freestyle at the 2018 European Championships (LC) and holds the LC German National record. He has concentrated more on training for open water events lately so he decided against a participation in China. So did Franziska Hentke who trained for three weeks in China in November and then returned to her German trainig base in Magdeburg.

Both won their signature events tonight in Berlin: Florian Wellbrock finished first in the 1500 m freestyle in a time of 14:34,51. his seasonal best time stands at 14:29,27. Franziska Hentke cruised to a dominant victory in the 200m butterfly. Her winning tim of 2:04,14 would have been the fourth place at SC Worlds and it seems that she had more left in the tank.

Also the men showed fast perfomances in the 200m butterfly: Alexander Kunert went for gold in a personal best time of 1:52,95. This time would have been worth the 10th place after prelims in Hangzhou. Tonight’s silver medalist David Thomasberger touched the wall in a time of 1:53,02.  Alexander Kunert will move to to the USA in about 2 weeks and will study and train at the Queens University in Charlotte, NC. He will join his German teammate Marius Kusch who has had an exemplary career in the NCAA, Division II, so far. Kusch has made huge improvements as a member of David Marsh’s Team Elite. Marius Kusch finished fifth today at the SC World Championships in the 100m butterfly.

Additional winners:

• 16-year-old Isabel Gose won the 800 m freestyle (8:27,63). Gose finished fifth in the 200m freestyle at the 2018 European Championships (LC).
• The 100 m breaststroke gold medal went to Franziska Weidner, another US student-athlete. She won the event in 1:06,86.
• Christoph Fildebrandt grabbed the win in the men’s 100m freestyle (47,47).
• And the 100m breastroke gold on the men’s side went to Julius Flohr (58,95).