Four starts, four medals: Florian Wellbrock is riding a wave of success at the World Championships. In open water, he confidently asserts himself over five kilometers. He can still get a fifth medal over twice the distance.
Swimming star Florian Wellbrock won his second gold at the World Championships in Budapest. The Olympic champion secured the title in the open water competition over five kilometers after 52:48.8 minutes and followed in Thomas Lurz's footsteps. The record world champion had triumphed in 2011 as the last German open water swimmer on this route at a World Cup.
"I had a great day today, beautiful weather again, exactly the conditions I want for the open water," said Wellbrock: "It was a really cool race."
In the 26.7-degree warm Lupasee, Wellbrock distanced the Italian 1500-meter world champion Gregorio Paltrinieri by 3.9 seconds, bronze went to the Ukrainian Michailo Romantschuk, who has been training with Wellbrock in Magdeburg since the Russian war against his country.
Wellbrock swam the five-kilometre race from the start, which the open-water Olympic champion added to his program compared to the last World Championships. About halfway through, he was leading a five-man lead group. On the final lap he pulled away with Paltrinieri and won easily.
Wellbrock has already won four medals in the title fights in the Hungarian metropolis. On Sunday, the 24-year-old led the freestyle relay to gold, before that he had won silver (800 meters) and bronze (1500 meters) in the Duna Arena pool.
Wellbrock can get a fifth precious metal on Wednesday over the Olympic ten kilometers. "I've already proven several times that I'm in very good shape," said Wellbrock, "the other guys will be a bit tired too. I'll throw everything back in then."
