Thursday 29 July 2021
“More was not possible today”
Wellbrock swims past the podium
His fiancée Sarah Köhler took bronze in the pool yesterday, but Florian Wellbrock can only win the wood medal over 800 meters freestyle today. Now his hopes are on the 1500 meter distance.
Double world champion Florian Wellbrock narrowly missed the second medal for the German pool swimmer at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The 23-year-old finished fourth in the 800 meter freestyle. In 7: 42.68 minutes, Wellbrock did not come close to his German record time of 7: 41.77 minutes from the prelim.
The American Robert Finke secured gold. Silver went to Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy, bronze went to the Ukrainian Michailo Romantschuk. “Fourth place is of course always bitter. But we couldn’t get any more today,” Wellbrock said immediately after the race on ARD. Now he wants to concentrate on his next start over the 1500 meters. “I’ll throw everything in there and see what comes out,” said Wellbrock.
Two years after his historic double success at the 2019 World Cup in South Korea, when he won gold in open water over ten kilometers and over 1500 meters freestyle within a few days, Wellbrock did not make the hoped-for start in Japan with an award ceremony on the podium. The day before, his fiancée Sarah Köhler had celebrated with bronze in the 1500 meter freestyle, the first medal for the German pool swimmer since Britta Steffen’s double gold in Beijing in 2008.
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