2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- July 23 to 30, 2023
- Fukuoka, Japan
- Marine Messe Fukuoka
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Results
- Women’s 10k recap
- Men’s 10k recap
- Women’s 5k recap
Florian Wellbrock won his second medal of the meet at the 2023 World Championships when he claimed gold in the men’s 5k open water race. Wellbrock is now 2-for-2 at this meet after he won the 10k to open these World Champs. Wellbrock won this open water event by just over 4 seconds, touching in 53:58.0 with Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri coming in right behind with a time of 54:02.5. Domenico Acerenza made it a 2-3 finish for Italy by taking bronze with his swim of 54:04.2.
“It’s so much fun. I’ve known Domenico and Gregorio for a really long time,” Wellbrock said after the race. “These guys are not just competitors for me, they are also friends and it’s so much fun to share the podium with friends and share this moment.”
Wellbrock of Germany has become a familiar face on the World Championships podium for both open water and pool swimming. Last year, at the 2022 World Championships, he won gold in the 5k and team open water race, silver in the 800 freestyle, and bronze in the 1500 freestyle and 10k. In 2019, he took gold in the 10k and 1500 freestyle. Wellbrock is also the reigning Olympic champion in the 10k open water race and picked up bronze in the 1500 freestyle at Tokyo 2020.
Paltrinieri is also no stranger to open water podiums, having won 10k gold in 2022, 5k silver in 2022, team open water silver in 2019, and team open water bronze in 2022. Acerenza won that team open water silver in 2019 and bronze in 2022 alongside Paltrinieri and also picked up a 10k silver individually in 2022. Paltrinieri and Acerenza train together under Fabrizio Antonelli.
“The training is pretty tough and also the group is really strong,” Paltrinieri said. “Every day, even if you don’t want to push, you have to push because all the guys are pushing. It’s a big group and really competitive. Even if you are not at your best condition, everybody is pushing so that is the most important thing for me to have all the other guys around that are putting pressure on me to perform well in training.”
With Wellbrock’s victory in the 5k, Germany has now gone 4-for-4 in the individual open water events at World Championships. He won the 5k and the 10k and teammate Leonie Beck won both of the women’s events. Germany collected a 5th medal in open water when Oliver Klement touched in third place in the 10k behind Wellbrock and Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary.
Men’s 5k – Top 8 Finishers
- Florian Wellbrock (GER) – 53:58.0
- Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) – 54:02.5
- Domenico Acerenza (ITA) – 54:04.2
- Oliver Klement (GER) – 54:57.2
- David Bethlehem (HUN) – 54:58.6
- Athanasios Kynigakis (GRE) – 54:58.6
- Kristof Rasovszky (HUN) – 55:23.9
- Kyle Lee (AUS) – 55:32.7
The final open water event of the 2023 World Championships will be the 6k team relay on July 20.
Us Americans need to put more effort into OWS.
Nevertheless good for Germany.
What were the conditions like in fukuoka? Flat? Fb loves the flat stuff. The rough sea swims I am not sure. Bravo Germany
The way to beat Wellbrock is simple, but extremely hard to execute, because his breadth and depth of experience is getting deeper and deeper.
He likes to swim in front of the pack….so don’t let him do it…if you can. Grant Hackett tried to do the same thing in Seville in 2008 when he was attempting to qualify for the inaugural open water 10K in Beijing. The more experienced open water swimmers played all sorts of tricks on him. It was a physical, tough race, and Hackett ended up getting DQ’d. Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia, a fantastic open water swimmer, outsprinted David Davies at the end after drafting for much of the race. Ironically, in Beijing, where Dyatchin was… Read more »
Not sure that would work, especially because every nation only has two athletes and i am not sure if different nations will work together + it is much more difficult to box someone in when he has much more room (than in athletics). I remember that back in the day of Farah people were also giving all sorts of clever tips and the africans never really found a way to beat him. I think possible ways to beat him could be a) try to get him disqualified or b) try to “stop” him from getting food or c) try to split up the field so that he can’t see you. I never swam in conditions like that, but i would… Read more »
It would have to be a combination of factors. Paltrinieri and Acerenza would be the prime candidates, although they haven’t executed that strategy in the past as far as I’m aware. Both have the speed to do it.
I must say, however, that one of the refreshing things I’ve seen in the 1500 and 10K is an unusual amount of mutual respect amongst the elite in the last several years. They don’t seem to get into it as much as they used to, as I illustrated above in the cases of Hackett & Dyatchin in 2008. Dyatchin always won from behind, but he was a target in Beijing. Wellbrock is a different animal entirely, and infinitely more experienced than… Read more »
Maybe someone could beat him by completely focusing on the 10 km and making it a time trial. Wellbrock has the “problem” that he can’t completely focus on the 10 km race since he also have to have the speed to do well over 800 m, so someone who completely focuses on volume and has more endurance than him might beat him by making it a 10 km time trial. The problem is that guys like Paltrinieri or Acerenza are also trying to do the 10 km/1500 free double.
More endurance than Florian Wellbrock? No way, dude.
Any way you cut it, it will be very hard. He’s something special.
They have to pray for big waves and perhaps then… But in Paris it won’t happen if Seine River would be the spot.
Agreed. I think it will be a flat course. Advantage to the speed/pool guys.
So basically cheat? If you can’t win without interfering with another swimmer is it worth it?
Very interesting question. In the “real world” pretty much everyone does whatever he/she can do get ahead (to earn more money). There has been the idea that sport is different and is more about fair play. Not sure how realistic it is to expect athletes do be(have) differently. Also not sure how much sense it makes to expect athletes to play fair when we all know how widespread doping is. I guess in the end it depends how much is on the line for each athlete. If someone knows that cheating is his/her only chance to win and he/she would get a ton of money for winning a gold medal at the olympics, then you probably can’t expect them to… Read more »
Cheating would involve intentional physicality. Some of it can be subtle. Veterans are expert at it. Swimming next to someone, and swinging that arm into the swimmer is common. It’s impeding the swimmer physically, although not as blatant. Additionally, swimming over someone, intentionally running someone into a buoy, and of course, the most common and hardest to detect: Pulling on the ankles. Vladimir Dyatchin, who I mentioned above, used to rub vaseline on his ankles to alleviate getting pulled back by swimmers behind him.
I thought Rasovszky was real close to a DQ the other day in the 10K at the finish. Did he intentionally run Klemet into the buoy? Not 100% sure.
I think the main issue… Read more »
Uh…no. That’s not cheating. Open water is not one lane and one swimmer. It is perfectly legal to swim in front of someone. It is perfectly legal to swim beside someone. Swimmers get boxed in all the time.
Wellbrock has to be one of the best open water swimmers of all time at this point.
Paltrinieri talks about the training. I wonder how different it is from 800m/1500m training in the pool.
We need a discussion about this. What are the nominations for the greatest open water swimmer ever?
Maarten van der Weijden, Ous Mellouli, and Petar Stoychev
Absurd list without Lurz. Lurz has won 9 world titles (3 in the 10 km race), no one else has won more than 5. He also won silver and bronze at the olympics. Sadly he is missing an olympic gold.
As far as i know Mellouli only won 1 olympic gold and no gold at world championships.
I think Van der Weijden won 1 olympic gold, but i am not sure if he ever won a gold at world championships.
I would say Lurz easily has a more impressive open water career than Van der Weijden and Mellouli COMBINED.
Wellbrock has an olympic gold and 4 golds at the world championships (2 in the 10 km… Read more »
Paul Asmuth
My thought exactly. Are we ranking based off of FINA / WA sanctioned events or including Open Water Marathon / professional events?
Open water triumphs,
Germany’s dominance prevails,
Wellbrock claims the gold.
glad you’re back, Zippo!
Hopefully he still has enough energy in store for pool swimming. Expecting some great time from him.
I don’t see why he should do worse this time than he did in 2022, 2021 or 2019. Paltrinieri also has the same “problem”. I think this is an advantage for Finke (and maybe Wiffen/Short). I think Finke will win at least one gold and i am not sure if Wellbrock could/would beat him even if he wouldn’t swim open water.
Well in Budapest last year and in Tokyo, the open water competitions weren’t until AFTER the pool competitions and in 2019, he only swam the 10km… so it is different.