{"id":649550,"date":"2026-08-04T03:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=649550"},"modified":"2026-08-04T05:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:53:33","slug":"european-aquatics-championships-last-lap-surge-steers-florian-wellbrock-to-maiden-european-open-water-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-aquatics-championships-last-lap-surge-steers-florian-wellbrock-to-maiden-european-open-water-title\/","title":{"rendered":"European Aquatics Championships: Last-Lap Surge Steers Florian Wellbrock to Maiden European Open Water Title"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>European Aquatics Championships: Last-Lap Surge Steers Florian Wellbrock to Maiden European Open Water Title<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/europeanaquatics.org\/paris-2026\/schedule-and-results\/#\/athletic-result\/OWS\/ST\/M\/10KM--------------\/FNL-\/000100--\">Results<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A final-lap surge propelled <strong>Florian Wellbrock<\/strong> to his maiden European open water title after 10 challenging kilometres in the River Seine in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>The German was in the top three throughout bar a short spell in sixth with a little under two kilometres to go.<\/p>\n<p>Third behind Paris 2024 Olympic medallists <strong>David Betlehem<\/strong> and <strong>Oliver Klemet<\/strong> going into the final lap, Wellbrock accelerated and soon picked off his Germany teammate to move into second.<\/p>\n<p>Betlehem was now in his sights and the Tokyo Olympic champion ate into the deficit before moving onto the Hungarian\u2019s shoulder and into the lead with a few hundred metres remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Betlehem hit back in the final chute but Wellbrock wasn\u2019t going to relinquish his advantage and came home in to touch the board in 1:55:18.3.<\/p>\n<p>It was a much-improved Paris experience for Wellbrock who finished eighth in the same River Seine two years ago in the Olympic marathon swimming, albeit on a different course. It also saw him clinch his fourth continental open water medal and first title.<\/p>\n<p>Wellbrock&#8217;s triumph followed his quadruple at last year&#8217;s World Championships where he swept the 5k, 10k, 3k knockout sprints and team open water.<\/p>\n<p>Betlehem upgraded Belgrade 2024 bronze to silver in 1:55.20.5 with Klemet third in 1:55:24.8.\u00a0There was a 10-second gap to <strong>Gregorio Paltrinieri<\/strong> in fourth with the Italian finishing in 1:55:34.8 with <strong>Marcello Guidi<\/strong> and <strong>Hector Pardoe<\/strong> rounding out the top six.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European Aquatics Championships: Last-Lap Surge Steers Florian Wellbrock to Maiden European Open Water Title Results A final-lap surge propelled Florian Wellbrock to his maiden European open water title after 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7575,"featured_media":649552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122074],"tags":[131012,38082,68659,32022,121822,131011],"class_list":["post-649550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-europe","tag-david-betlehem","tag-european-aquatics-championships","tag-florian-wellbrock","tag-gregorio-paltrinieri","tag-hector-pardoe","tag-oliver-klemet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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