Gold luck for the German swimmer relay!
At the World Championships in Budapest, the German team wins the race over 4 x 1.5 kilometers – and benefits from four disqualifications.
With Greece, South Korea, South Africa and Spain, the leading teams at the time were taken out of the water shortly following the first season change.
What happened?
All of the first swimmers of the four nations got lost at the last buoy in Budapest’s Lupa Lake and therefore had to take a shortcut! So the race for the top 4 was over, the big winner was the German relay.
Due to the mass disqualification, Oliver Klemet (20) was able to fight his way to the top following the first round from Lea Boy (22) and handed over to Leonie Beck (25) as the leader. As the final swimmer, Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock (24) made the gold medal perfect with a strong final sprint.
The Magdeburg swimming superstar should have tasted twice the relay gold following he might not defend his world championship title in the parade discipline on the 1500 meters freestyle on Saturday, “only” might win bronze. The Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri won.
National coach Bernd Berkhahn (51) on Wellbrock’s strong final sprint on Sunday: “He did it brilliantly, tactically he was very, very good. He was neither for Hungary nor for Italy. That’s when you noticed what he’s actually capable of.”
