Wellbrock Puts Up 3rd Best 1500 Free Of His Career To Kick-off German Nats

2019 GERMAN SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2019 German Short Course National Championships kicked off with a bang, as Sarah Köhler established a new German national record in the women’s 800m free.

Clocking a time of 8:08.02, Köhler dropped over 2 seconds from her own previous national mark and lifetime best of 8:10.54 notched at the 2018 Short Course World Championships. With her outing this evening, the Frankfurt native now enters the all-time performers’ list in this event in slot #10, tying Kristel Kobrich.

You can read more about Köhler’s performance, as well as the 800m free race as a whole, here. 

For the men, it was two-time World Championships gold medalist Florian Wellbrock who set himself apart from the 1500m free field tonight. Touching in 14:30.07, Wellbrock was able to keep Sven Schwarz at bay with the 17-year-old’s swim yielding a time of 14:31.24 for a new German Age Record.

Schwarz’s time overtakes the previous record held by World Record holder Paul Biedermann. As for Wellbrock, the man has been under 14:30 2 times in his career, with a PB of 14:28.19 from last year. As such, his performance tonight represents the 3rd quickest of his career.

Of note, Wellbrock will not be competing at the European Short Course Championships, per the German Swimming Federation.

National record holder Franziska Hentke came out on top of the women’s 200m fly field, earning the top prize in a mark of 2:06.27. That outing managed to hold off a charging Angelina Köhler who hit the wall less than half a second later in 2:06.75.

The two women represented the only athletes under 2:10 in the race, with both easily clearing the 2:09.00 Glasgow QT. However, per the German Swimming Federation, Hentke said she will most likely not be competing in Glasgow. She took gold in the event in Copenhagen in a time of 2:03.92.

The men’s 200m fly saw Ramon Klenz rattle the German record of 1:51.21 put on the books by Thomas Rupprath way back in 2001. Splitting 53.69/58.19 Klenz clinched gold in a final effort of 1:51.88 this evening, logging a new personal best in the process.

He led a pair of atheltes able to get under the 1:54.70 marker needed for Glasgow, with Daniel Pinneker joining him in 1:53.98.

Of his swim, Klenz stated, “I am very satisfied with the time. Sure, the German record wasn’t far away, but that’s not so bad now.”

Annika Bruhn got her hand on the wall narrowly ahead of Lisa Hopink in the women’s 100m freestyle, with the former getting gold in 53.26 to the latter’s 53.30.

Jessica Steiger settled for bronze in 53.42, while 2 other swimmers were also in the 53-second range.

For 27-year-old Bruhn, her time this evening represents her career-quickest. Entering this meet she had been as fast as 53.45 last year, so she managed to strip almost .2 off of that previous personal best.

Of note, 17-year-old Maya Tobehn took the B-final in a new German Age Record-setting effort of 53.52. That time would have placed 4th in the A-final and also clears the 53.55 time standard needed for the European Short Course Championships. Splits for Tobehn include 25.89/27.63.

Tobehn took 100m free silver and 200m free bronze at this year’s European Junior Championships.

The women’s 100m breaststroke saw 2 age records bite the dust when all was said and done in tonight’s final. Getting it done for gold first off, however, was Stieger, the woman who took bronze in the 100m free earlier this session. Steiger collected the top time in this breast race in 1:06.22, enough to clear the QT for Glasgow.

Behind her was 18-year-old Anna Elendt, who secured silver in the only other sub-1:07 mark of the field, in 1:06.36. That checks-in as a new Age Record for the athlete, whose previous PB rested at the 1:06.98 put up almost 2 years ago.

Finally, in 4th place was Kellie Messel, whose time of 1:07.68 checks-in as a new German Age Record for 15-year-olds.

Additional Winners:

  • Rafael Miroslaw cracked a time of 47.73 to lead the men’s 100m free event, touching just .07 ahead of runner-up Damian Wierling.
  • The men’s 100m breast saw one qualify for Glasgow in the form of Christian Vom Lehn, who touched in 58.38 for gold.

In This Story

3
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

3 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
nuotofan
4 years ago

Interesting results indeed. Great performance from Sven Schwartz (bronze medalist at last EuroJunior in 15.09) who finished his race faster than Wellbrock, closing the gap till just over one second. Huge PB (15 seconds of improvement) for him and huge PB (19 seconds of improvement) also for Silas Beth (born in 2003) who in today final has swum a 14.49.27 for fifth.
Overall two distance races (women’s 800 free and men’s 1500 free) of a remarkable level.

AnEn
Reply to  nuotofan
4 years ago

I think the level on the men’s side was indeed very good, but I don’t really agree about the women’s side, especially because the 2nd best German athlete kn this event (Leonie Beck) was missing. Wellbrock‘s time was decent given that he swam it out of full training, but I would really like to see him at his best in the 1500 free short course one day. He should be able to go sub 14:10, especially because I consider his turns better than those of Romanchuk and Paltrinieri. Schwarz was a positive surprise today and if he keeps the momentum going he should swim between 14:50 and 14:55 next year, which should be enough to qualify for the olympics. Köhler‘s… Read more »

CHMI
Reply to  AnEn
4 years ago

Wellbrock qualified for European Short Course Championship. Maybe that will be an opportunity to see him tapered (although he might focus on the Olympics next year)

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

Read More »