{"id":610903,"date":"2025-04-25T12:05:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T19:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=610903"},"modified":"2025-04-25T12:05:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T19:05:37","slug":"florian-wellbrock-heads-800-free-at-gothaer-friends-meet-in-magdeburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/florian-wellbrock-heads-800-free-at-gothaer-friends-meet-in-magdeburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Florian Wellbrock Heads 800 Free At Gothaer & Friends Meet In Magdeburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florian Wellbrock Heads 800 Free At Gothaer & Friends Meet In Magdeburg<\/h4>\n

Florian Wellbrock<\/strong> headed the men’s 800 free on the first day of the Gothaer and Friends meet in Magdeburg.<\/p>\n

Wellbrock – who won 800 silver at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest – trains in the city in Saxony-Anhalt under the guidance of coach Bernd Berkhahn<\/strong>. He was tracked closely throughout the race by Johannes Liebmann<\/strong> and it wasn’t until the final 100 that he managed to put more than a second between the two of them. Wellbrock stopped the clock in 7:49.79 with Liebmann setting a German junior standard of 7:50.86. Arne Schubert<\/strong> was the third man home in 7:59.06.<\/p>\n

It followed Wellbrock’s successful outing at the Swim Open Stockholm<\/strong> a fortnight ago. The 27-year-old posted 14:38.27 en-route to victory<\/a> in the 1500 free to top the world rankings. He then went 7:41.10 for second behind Lukas M\u00e4rtens<\/strong> in the 800 with his Germany teammate going 7:39.10 for victory.<\/p>\n

M\u00e4rtens is also competing in Magdeburg in the 100 and 200 free and 100 backstroke, two weeks after setting a 400 free WR of 3:39.86<\/a> as he lowered Paul Biedermann’s<\/strong> supersuited record that had stood since July 2009.<\/p>\n

Leonie M\u00e4rtens<\/strong> – sister of Lukas – headed the women’s 1500 free in 16:27.29 ahead of Julia Ackermann<\/strong> who clocked 16:42.20 with the pair the only women inside 17mins. M\u00e4rtens was outside the A cut for the World Championships in Singapore.<\/p>\n

Lars Kochmann<\/strong> and Maya Werner<\/strong> won the men’s and women’s 50 back in 27.66 and 30.00 respectively with Jonas Schwerthelm<\/strong> and Kellie Messel<\/strong> taking the 50 breast races in 28.51 and 33.30.<\/p>\n

Luca Sch\u00f6ttge<\/strong> posted 4:27.43 for the men’s 400IM while Ewa zur Br\u00fcgge<\/strong> was the only woman inside 5mins in the women’s in 4:58.43.<\/p>\n