Wellbrock Wins. TBD In Tokyo
Courtesy of FINA, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
It is still a long way off to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but Germany’s Florian Wellbrock can possibly achieve a Mellouli Double (competing in both the 1500m and marathon swim at a single Olympics).
There is a strong possibility that Wellbrock will face 2016 Italian Olympic 1500m champion Gregorio Paltrinieri and 2012 Chinese Olympic 1500m champion Sun Yang in the distance freestyle event in the pool on the last day of the Olympic pool swimming schedule.
What is most remarkable is that Wellbrock’s pool race could be followed by a competition in Tokyo Bay against defending 2016 Olympic 10 km champion Ferry Weertman and the rest of the fastest marathon swimmers in the open water four days after the 1500m swim.
Wellbrock is not only on a roll in the pool in the 1500m with the world’s fastest time in 2018 in 14:40.69, but he has also out-sprinted all top competitors in three major international competitions: at the LEN World Cup race in Gravelines, France in May, the FINA/HOSA Marathon Swim World Series race held in Balatonfüred, Hungary in June, and in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Friday.
Wellbrock won the eighth and final leg of the FINA/HOSA Marathon Swim World Series in a very tight finish among men in 1 hour 53 minutes 0.9 seconds, only 0.4 over Paltrinieri and 0.7 over Kristóf Rasovszky and 0.9 over Marc-Antoine Olivier.
“The race started really slow and it remained like that until the 5 km mark. Then, things got a bit faster, but this initial pace allowed me to save some energy for the final. I could then manage to get into the last meters of the race with additional strength,” described Wellbrock. “I’ll try to qualify for both [the 1500m and 10 km races at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics]. Here, it was an easy race – the water was quite flat, so I could imagine swimming in a pool. I’m happy, because being only my second race of the season, I won both.”
What happens in Tokyo is TBD (to be decided), but things are looking up for Wellbrock.
Results:
1. Florian Wellbrock (Germany) 1:53:00.90
2. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) 1:53:01.40
3. Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary) 1:53:01.70
4. Marc-Antoine Olivier (France) 1:53:01.90
5. Mario Sanzullo Italy) 1:53:04.30
6. Andreas Waschburger (Germany) 1:53:05.90
7. Ferry Weertman (Netherlands) 1:53:09.20
8. Rob Frederik Muffels (Germany) 1:53:26.00
9. Axel Reymond (France) 1:53:27.80
10. Logan Fontaine (France) 1:53:30.30
11. Andrea Manzi (Italy) 1:53:31.00
12. Jack Burnell (Great Britain) 1:53:35.00
13. Simone Ruffini (Italy) 1:53:36.50
14. Christian Reichert (Germany) 1:53:36.70
15. Marcel Schouten (Netherlands) 1:53:37.40
16. Matteo Furlan (Italy) 1:53:37.50
17. Soren Detlef Meissner (Germany) 1:53:37.60
18. Tobias Patrick Robinson (Great Britain) 1:53:37.90
19. Alberto Martinez Murcia (Spain) 1:53:38.80
20. Beraud (France) 1:53:39.70
21. Diogo Villarinho (Brazil) 1:53:40.20
22. Danie Marais (South Africa) 1:53:41.20
23. Pepijn Smits (Netherlands) 1:53:42.40
24. Niklas Frach (Germany) 1:53:44.90
25. Raul Santiago Betancor (Spain) 1:53:46.80
26. Matej Kozubek (Czech Republic) 1:53:47.10
27. Vitaliy Khudyakov (Kazakhstan) 1:53:47.20
28. Alexis Vandevelde (France) 1:53:47.70
29. Chad Ho (South Africa) 1:53:47.80
30. Krzysztof Pielowski (Poland) 1:53:47.90
31. Rafael Gil (Portugal) 1:53:49.50
32. Taishin Minamide (Japan) 1:54:15.00
33. Marcus Herwig (Germany) 1:54:30.60
34. Kirill Belyaev (Russia) 1:54:30.70
35. Fernando Ponte (Brazil) 1:54:31.70
36. Jean-Baptiste Clusman (France) 1:54:31.90
37. Guillem Pujol (Spain) 1:54:33.30
38. Hau-Li Fan (Canada) 1:54:35.10
39. Elliot Sodemann (Sweden) 1:54:37.00
40. Clement Kukla (France) 1:54:42.10
41. Jon Thomas McKay (Canada) 1:54:48.70
42. Yosuke Aoki (Japan) 1:55:16.80
43. Ruoyu Wang (China) 1:55:21.70
44. Aubin Coccordano (France) 1:55:22.90
45. Allan do Carmo (Brazil) 1:55:24.90
46. Jiabao An (China) 1:55:31.30
47. Riku Kuwazoe (Japan) 1:55:39.20
48. Enzo Roldan Munoz (France) 1:55:40.50
49. Chris Deegan (Australia) 1:55:42.30
50. Vit Ingeduld (Czech Republic) 1:55:42.90
51. Pol Gil (Spain) 1:55:54.00
52. Christian Keber (Germany) 1:56:10.90
53. Nicholas Rollo (Australia) 1:56:49.70
54. Takeshi Toyoda (Japan) 1:57:16.50
55. Igor Chervynskiy (Ukraine) 1:58:38.90
56. William Yan Thorley (Hong Kong) 1:58:39.40
57. Moselhy Mohamed (Egypt) 1:59:22.10
58. Yunze Wang (China) 1:59:52.10
59. Naim Mokhfi (France) 1:59:52.10
60. Long Cheng (China) 2:00:08.10
61. Bozhao Zhang (China) 2:00:10.30
62. Eric Hedlin (Canada) 2:00:21.70
63. Lev Cherepanov (Kazakhstan) 2:00:27.70
64. Fernando Betanzos (Mexico) 2:03:03.30
65. Rui Meng (China) 2:05:07.30
67. Hao Han Wang (China) 2:10:12.80
68. Kenessary Kenenbayev (Kazakhstan) 2:12:13.20
69. Timotius Mulyadi (Indonesia) 2:14:52.20
70. Chak Fung Lam (Hong Kong) 2:16:36.90
71. Ching Leung Sunny Poon (Hong Kong) 2:17:25.60
72. Tsz Fung Tse (Hong Kong) 2:17:39.90
73. Damien Payet (Seychelles) 2:19:57.00
74. Gavin Akbar Dharmawa (Indonesia) 2:22:44.50
DNF Mevan Abhiskek Induruwa (Sri Lanka)
DNF Marwan Ahmed Aly Morsy Elamrawy (Egypt)
DNF David Olvera Lopez (Mexico)
DNF Simon Wanna (Lebanon)
DNF Uyanga Abeysingha Mudiya (Sri Lanka)
DNF Ruwan S Disenthuwa Handi (Sri Lanka)
DNF Narada Assaj Jayanorisge (Sri Lanka)
DNF Sasindu Ravishk Kalugala (Sri Lanka)
DNF Vimal Warnakulasooriyage (Sri Lanka)
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