World Championships: Florian Wellbrock Pulls Away for 18.7-Second Win in Open Water 10K

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Florian Wellbrock -- Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

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World Championships: Florian Wellbrock Pulls Away for 18.7-Second Win in Open Water 10K

In his last trip to Japan, Florian Wellbrock became an Olympic champion in his final swim, crushing the field in the 10-kilometer open water race and winning gold by 25 seconds. Two years later in his return to the country, it was the same story as Wellbrock reclaimed the world title in the 10K in a dominant performance.

Wellbrock led after each of the six laps of the course, and even at intermediate splits, he was never further back than second place and three seconds off the lead. On the final lap, Wellbrock opened up a significant gap. Leading by 4.6 seconds with one-third of the lap remaining, he pulled away to touch the pad in 1:50:40.3, 18.7 seconds clear of the field.

“The course was really simple today, just four turn buoys,” Wellbrock said. ” The conditions were really good. We started with flat water, and the temperature was OK for every athlete. At the end, the water was a little choppy, so I tried to save a little bit of energy during the race because I want to be prepared for the choppy water to fight a little bit with the waves. It worked really well, and my last lap was the fastest today. It was the key to win the gold medal.”

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Florian Wellbrock — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

The win was Germany’s second in two 10K races in Fukuoka after Leonie Beck was the gold medalist in the women’s 10K. While Beck swam in the back of the pack before surging late, Wellbrock prefers leading throughout and did so in this race.

“That’s always (the plan),” Wellbrock said. “I love to be in the open water, but I don’t like to stick in the pack and have fights with the athletes. I really enjoy deciding where we have to go, what pace we have to go. That’s really fun for me, to be the leader for the whole race and decide what we have to do.”

The gold medal was Wellbrock’s fifth at the World Championships. Previously, he won the 10K and 1500 freestyle in 2019, and last year, he was the champion in the team open water race as well as the 5K while also winning silver in the 800 free and bronze medals in the 1500 free and 10K. And Wellbrock could accumulate several more medals in Fukuoka, with the 5K still to come as well as potentially the open water team event before he competes in the pool as one of the favorites in the 800 and 1500 free.

Behind Wellbrock, however, it was a battle for silver and bronze as Wellbrock’s German teammate Oliver Klemet and Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky came into the finishing shoot neck-and-neck. Klemet appeared to have a narrow edge as the two men approached the pad, but the two drifted to the left, and Klemet actually swam into the buoy attached to the finish pad. That allowed Rasovszky to come in just ahead in 1:50:59.0 and earn the silver medal, with Klemet claiming bronze in 1:51:00.8.

“I know that I prepared really hard for this year to make the Olympic qualification in the top three, and today went really well,” Rasovszky said. “I think it was one of my best races ever. No one could take me out of my comfort zone. I was always in the position I wanted to be. When I wanted to push it a little bit more and go to the front because I felt I had more energy and maybe the others not have that much, I could go ahead and push it. Flo was faster in the last lap than me, but I expected this. It was same as the Olympics a few years ago, but I was a little bit closer than that.”

Klemet, meanwhile, secured Germany’s third medal in open water following the golds from Beck and Wellbrock, and he used the swift pace set by Wellbrock, his training partner, to his advantage.

“If he starts to make the race fast, it’s good for me because I have really good speed in the pool. I’m one of the fastest guys in open water,” Klemet said. “If he starts to make the pace really fast, the group is going to be smaller and smaller, so I can swim free, and that helps me a lot.”

The three medalists automatically claimed spots in the 10K race at the 2024 Olympics, with Wellbrock and Rasovszky each qualifying to swim in their third Games (both swam the 1500 free in the pool in 2016 before adding open water in 2021) while Klemet is heading to his first.

Coming into the finish, Rasovszky admitted that he was fine with the bronze medal, knowing he would still secure his place in Paris, but when he saw he was so close with Klemet, he made one final surge.

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to give this place to Oliver and make Germany the 1-2 position like last year Italy did in the 10K,'” Rasovszky said. “This time, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to do what I can,’ and I didn’t give that much space for Oliver at the finish. It happens, and it’s not against the rules.”

Just missing the podium and automatic qualifying spots for Paris were the two Italian swimmers, Domenico Acerenza and Gregorio Paltrinieri. The duo scored a 1-2 finish in the event at last year’s Worlds in Budapest (Paltrinieri winning gold and Acerenza taking silver), but this time, Acerenza finished in 1:51:16.7 for fourth, with Paltrinieri fifth in 1:51:40.7. Both men will have to rely on their results at the next World Championships, scheduled for February 2024 in Doha, Qatar, to claim Olympic spots in open water.

Greece’s Athenasios Kynigakis touched out Australia’s Nicholas Sloman for sixth, 1:51:42.10 to 1:51:41.20, and rounding out the top 10 were Israel’s Matan Roditi (1:51:43.80), France’s Logan Fontaine (1:52:41.70) and Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe (1:53:04.20).

Looking ahead, Wellbrock was pleased that his races will be spread out over two weeks instead of the situation at last year’s Worlds, where the 1500 free prelim and final were the two days prior to the open water team event, with the 5K and 10K races following just one day off.

“This year, the plan for every competition is much better for the athletes that are doing open water and also the pool competition,” Wellbrock said. “It was the same problem for Gregorio. He was not 100% percent ready for the relay and the 5K. After that, he had enough recovery to do a good race in the 10K. There was not enough time to have a good recovery. This year, we have enough time to recover between events.”

Special thanks to World Aquatics for providing reporting from the post-race press conference.

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