Isabel Gose was desperate. The narrowly missed gold medal in a real swimming thriller caused anger and tears for the 21-year-old. “I’m so mad,” Gose said following her second-place finish in the 800-meter freestyle. “It’s so close. I’ll never get a chance like that once more,” she added on Saturday in the interview zone at the Aspire Dome. A few minutes earlier she had clocked in within nine hundredths of a second of the Italian world champion Simona Quadarella. “It’s just sad,” Gose said. Then she cried.
Because exceptional swimmer Katie Ledecky from the USA decided not to take part in the World Championships in Doha in the year of the Olympic Games, the fight for gold was open for the first time in many years. Since 2013, seven-time Olympic champion Ledecky has won the 800-meter race at every World Cup. This time it looked for a long time as if Gose might use the 26-year-old’s absence to win her first World Cup gold. The Berlin native was in the lead for a long time and was still leading at the last turn. In the end, Quadarella still showed off her strength and experience.
Fifth German medal at the World Cup
Gose’s Magdeburg coach Bernd Berkhahn was emotionally excited next to the pool. When Gose clocked in following 8:17.53 minutes and it was clear that it wasn’t enough for the title, he too was disappointed. He can still be happy with his athlete. Gose had been working towards a medal for a long time. She has now won precious metal three times in the Aspire Dome. She won bronze in the 400 and 1500 meter freestyle.
With her silver medal, Gose secured the German team their fifth precious metal at this World Cup. Angelina Köhler was crowned world champion in the 100 meter butterfly. Lukas Märtens won bronze in the 400 meter freestyle. The German team last won more medals at the 2009 World Championships in Rome. Back then, the guarantors of success were still called Britta Steffen and Paul Biedermann.
Unlike Gose, gold winner Köhler, as expected, didn’t get another medal. Five days following her triumph in the 100 meter butterfly, the 23-year-old took fifth place over half the distance in a personal best time of 25.71 seconds.
Around eight hours before Köhler’s competition, Florian Wellbrock had indicated that the World Cup might still end well for him. The 26-year-old qualified for the final in the 1500 meter freestyle in 14:48.43 minutes as the fastest in the heats. Wellbrock was surprisingly eliminated in the preliminary round over 800 meters. The Bremen native was also unable to fulfill his potential in the open water races over ten and five kilometers. He was now correspondingly relieved.
“I didn’t even think regarding the final”
“The last few days have been very humbling, to put it simply. But I think we have now found a very good way to take an important step,” he said. With a view to the final this Sunday (5:16 p.m. CET), Wellbrock said. “I didn’t even think regarding the final. I wanted to do a good run-up first. I think that might also have been a problem because I was always in the finals with one half of the brain in the heats. That wasn’t the case today.”
The second German starter Sven Schwarz also reached the final as fifth in the heats. Backstroke swimmer Ole Braunschweig is in the 50 meter final.
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