Germany names 15 to SC Worlds team; Wellbrock, Hentke, Heintz absent

The German Swimming Federation (DSV) has announced its team for the upcoming Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou, China. There are eight women and seven men on the team, highlighted by 2017 SC European Champion Sarah Köhler (800 m freestyle) and 2016 SC World Champion Marco Koch (100m and 200 m breaststroke). Marco Koch missed the German qualification standards for the LC European Championships in Glasgow this summer. He changed his training home from Darmstadt to Frankfurt a few months ago. Marco Koch wants to gain some new stimuli en route to the 2020 Olympic Games.

Florian Wellbrock, who won gold in the 1500 m freestyle at the 2018 European Championships, won’t attend the SC World Championships. Wellbrock concentrates on open water competitions at the moment. Franziska Hentke has set her priorities on different training camps lately, altitude training in Spain and she also spent three weeks in Tokyo to train with a Japanese elite squad. Wellbrock and Hentke are the highest ranked German swimmers in the current SC world rankings. Wellbrock sits on the third spot in the 1500m freestyle, Hentke is the fourth fastest woman in the 200 m butterfly. Also Philip Heintz will be absent from the competition in Hangzhou, he is suffering from shoulder problems. He won silver in the 200m IM at the last SC World Championships.

Two promising German youngsters aren’t qualified for the team, Isabel Gose and Johannes Hintze. 16-year-old Isabel Gose finished fifth at the 2018 European Championships (LC) in the 200 m freestyle. She was the youngest finalist and the fastest German swimmer. Hintze, 19,  is the 2017 Junior World Champion in the 200m IM.

Full roster

Women:

• Sarah Köhler
• Reva Foos
• Laura Riedemann
• Annika Bruhn
• Jenny Mensing
• Aliena Schmidtke
• Jessica Steiger
• Marie Pietruschka

Men:

• Damian Wierling
• Marius Kusch
• Maximilian Pilger
• Christian Diener
• Fabian Schwingenschlögl
• Marco Koch
• Ramon Klenz