Riedemann and again Köhler, Wellbrock hit German Olympic qualifying standards

by Daniela Kapser 5

February 09th, 2020 Europe, News

MWG Swim Cup 2020, Magdeburg, Germany

Laura Riedemann is the second German female swimmer, next to Sarah Köhler, to reach the  German Olympic Qualifying standard. The 21-year-old cracked the German standard (1:00,00) with her performance of 59,89 in the 100m backstroke. Laura Riedemann set her  personal best time of 59.82 at 2019 World Championships in Gwangju. There she was a tenth over the 100 m backstroke.

Another German woman didn’t manage to make it into the 2020 German Olympic Team early: Franziska Hentke had to reach a time of 2:08,43 in the 200m butterfly, but she finished today with a time of 2:08,60 in prelims and 2:08,74 in the final. Hentke reached a fourth place finish at the 2019 World Championships. This result means that she is pre-qualified for the Olympic Games and only must swim the time of 2:08,43 once before the end of the German qualifying period (May 3rd).

Two of her training partners in Magdeburg hit the German Olympic standard twice during the last three days of competition: Sarah Köhler now is qualified for the 800 m and 1500 m freestyle. She easily stayed under the Olympic time of 16:32,04 today and came in with 16:03,76. Köhler is the German record holder in the 1500 m freestyle (LC) with a time of 15:48,83. She also qualified for the Olympic 800m freestyle on Friday.

The qualifications of Sarah Köhler are safe because of a special clause in the German Olympic Nomination Rules for Florian Wellbrock (1500 m freestyle), Philip Heintz (200m IM) and Franziska Hentke (200 m butterfly): They are pre-qualified due to their rankings in the top four at the World Championships. They just had to achieve a slightly slower German Olympic standard.

Also Florian Wellbrock took his second event bid for the Olympic team today setting a time of 7:49,44 in the 800m freestyle (German Olympic time: 7:50,30). Wellbrock is also nominated for the Olympic 10 k open water event. In contrast to the 1500m freestyle event, the German men have the chance to snatch Wellbrock’s starting place over the 800m freestyle if they are faster than Wellbrock by May 3rd.

Five German swimmers so far punched their tickets to Tokyo: Besides Sarah Köhler (800m, 1500m freestyle) and Florian Wellbrock (1500m freestyle, 800m freestyle, 10 k open water), there are Laura Riedemann (100m backstroke), Philip Heintz (200 m IM) and Marco Koch (200 m breaststroke).

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Wow
4 years ago

I can’t understand anything in this article

Troyy
4 years ago

Are you sure that time for Riedemann is correct because the next sentence doesn’t make sense if it is.

Reid
4 years ago

“The 21-year-old undercut the German standard of exactly 1 minute with her performance of 58,87 in the 100m backstroke. She stayed 0,07 seconds over her personal best time of 59.82”

What?

FSt
Reply to  Reid
4 years ago

I read that sentence 3 times and then went to the comments to ask what any of this meant… because none of it makes sense 😂

nuotofan
Reply to  FSt
4 years ago

The last assertion is right, because Riedemann’s time was 59.89, 0.07 seconds over her PB. Yesterday, when I checked the results, I thought to write the correct Riedemann’s time in this section, but then I thought this was useless, being the link of results available.