Romanchuk and Wellbrock Both Break National Records in Stockholm

Gregorio

2019 SWIM OPEN STOCKHOLM

On the final day of the Swim Open Stockholm on Monday, German swimmer Florian Wellbrock broke the German National Record in the men’s 800 meter freestyle.

Wellbrock swam a 7:43.03 in the event, which broke his own national record, from last year’s European Championships, of 7:45.60. In spite of his record-setting swim on Monday, Wellbrock wasn’t able to defend his title in Stockholm: last year, he won in a 7:46.85.

This year, he was beaten by Ukrainian Mykhaylo Romanchuk, who set a new Meet Record in 7:42.49 – about half-a-second ahead of Wellbrock. That swim was a new National Record for Romanchuk as well, breaking his old mark of 7:42.96 (also from the European Championships).

Comparative Splits:

Romanchuk Romanchuk Wellbrock Wellbrock
Euros 2018 Stockholm 2019 Stockholm 2019 Euros 2018
100m 56.62 56.59 56.82 56.55 100m
200m 58.42 58.28 58.77 58.72 200m
300m 58.76 58.61 58.48 58.94 300m
400m 58.64 58.48 58.71 58.76 400m
500m 58.15 58.18 58.25 58.44 500m
600m 58.28 58.3 58.78 59.19 600m
700m 58.08 57.94 58.07 58.88 700m
800m 56.01 56.11 55.15 56.12 800m
Total Time 7:42.96 7:42.49 7:43.03 7:45.60 Total Time

As the table above shows, Romanchuk’s consistency through the middle is what carried him to both a new best time, and the win over Wellbrock, who had more ups-and-downs in his splitting, but did finish with a very fast 55.15 – a second faster than any of the other swims in the comparison by either swimmer.

The men’s 800 free, one of 3 new Olympic events being added to the schedule for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, continues to be a Euro-centric event. At the 2017 World Championships, 7 of the top 8 finishers were European. That group included Wellbrock (who has dropped almost 10 seconds since that swim), but not Romanchuk, who didn’t swim the 800, but took silver in the 1500, at that meet.

Those two now rank 1st and 2nd in the world, respectively, with 3 Italians behind them.

2018-2019 LCM MEN 800 FREE

2Henrik
CHRISTIANSEN
NOR7.41.2807/24
3David
AUBRY
FRA7.42.0807/24
4Mykhalo
Romanchuk
UKR7:42.4904/15
5Jack
McLOUGHLIN
AUS7.42.6407/24
View Top 26»

0
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »