Pan Pacific Championships: Florian Wellbrock Adds Another Title in Men’s Open Water
Different continent, different field, same result for Florian Wellbrock.
The impervious German made his flight to Los Angeles worthwhile, adding a gold medal in the Pan Pacific Championships in the men’s 10-kilometer swim to kick off the meet on Monday.
Wellbrock was never not in control, the Tokyo Olympic champion controlling the field at nearly every juncture. Times and official result remain pending.
Mexico’s Paulo Strehlke Delgado made a solid move with about 300 meters to go to get in second. Italy’s Dario Verani was third, with Americans Ivan Puskovitch and Dylan Gravley coming in at fourth and fifth.
It’s been quite a week for Wellbrock. He won the European Championship in the 10-kilometer swim on Aug. 4 in the River Seine in 1:55:18.39, a margin of nearly two seconds over the field. The next day, he added a two-second victory in the 5-kilometer swim. He was just seventh in the Aug. 7 3-km knockout sprint but returned a day later to win gold in the mixed 4 x 1500-meter relay for Germany, anchoring the squad.
One 11-and-a-half hour flight later, and he was taking it to the best of the Pacific rim countries. His gold joins open-water wins at the Olympics (Tokyo in 2021), World Championships (2019, 2023 and 2025 at this distance) and Euros.
There were few instances where Wellbrock wasn’t in the lead, and certainly none when he wasn’t in control of events. In 77-degree waters at the Long Beach Marine Stadium, he came off the pace briefly on the fourth lap of six to lead Puskovitch and Australian Nick Sloman take the lead. Sloman and Brazil’s Matheus Mellechi skipped the feed zone on Lap 5 to take the lead, but Wellbrock took over in short order. Wellbrock remained in control when Sloman took an inside line on the final lap in a bid to introduce chaos.
It was a 15-man group on the lead out of 27 registered competitors until the fourth lap. That shrunk to 12 in a lead pack increasingly strung out on final lap.
At 400 meters, Wellbrock and Sloman were out front until the German put the foot down coming around the last buoy. He quickly had a two-bodylength lead, with no one in the pack able to match his steady, unflappable acceleration. When a response did come at 250 meters, it was Delgado, the 20-year-old Mexican whose biggest previous result was silver at the 2022 World Junior Championship over 7.5 kilometers. He momentarily looked like he might pose a threat to Wellbrock, but the German clocked his presence and kicked away again.
Verani, 31, has had his most success over longer distances. He was the 25-kilometer World Champion in 2022 and the 2024 European champ over that distance.
