Florian Wellbrock, Rob Muffels, Finnia Wunram Start to Catch Up

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

The 2020 German Open Water Championships in Aggertalsperre, Derschlagerstraße demonstrated how far behind the Germans are to their Italian and French rivals when the 10 km times are compared.

While Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri nearly set a world record in the 1500m freestyle and followed that pool swim with a 1:52.09 in the 10 km Italian Championships with 2016 Olympic 10 km bronze medalist Marc-Antoine Olivier from France swimming a 1:52.23, two-time 2019 FINA world champion Florian Wellbrock from Germany only managed a 1:57:56 and third-ranked teammate Rob Muffels [shown above] swam a 2:02:27 (significantly slower than his 2020 Olympic qualifying time of 1:47:57).

Similarly, 2020 German Olympic 10 km marathon swimmer Finnia Wunram swam a 2:06:28 – well behind 19-year-old winner Elea Linka and slower than her Olympic qualifying time of 1:54:50.

But there are still almost 12 months for Wellbrock, Muffels and Wunram to get back in top shape for Tokyo. German Coach Bernd Berkhahn admitted, “We would have loved to swim at the Italian championships. But traveling is still associated with too much risk for me. During the coronavirus pandemic, minimizing the potential for contagion plays a major role in all of the plans of the DSV national coaches. This is another reason why Wellbrock is starting the Olympic season here.”

Men’s 10 km Results:
1. Florian Wellbrock 1:57:56
2. Oliver Klemet1:59:31
3. Aaron Schmidt 1:59:33
4. Niklas Frach 1:59:51
5. Til Schmidt 2:00:20
6. Ben Langner 2:00:57
7. Rob Muffels 2:02:27
8. Niklas Hellmich 2:12:10
9. Max Brandenstein 2:12:37
10. Alexander Menzel 2:17:45
11. Christian Hemker 2:24:03
12. Rolf Stiel 2:50:12

Women’s 10 km Results:
1. Elea Linka 2:05:31
2. Sarah Köhler 2:05:32
3. Finnia Wunram 2:06:28
4. Samira-Svea Erhart 2:15:42
5. Fabienne Otto 2:17:06
6. Louisa Obermark 2:20:13
7. Sandra Hornig 2:33:28
8. Susanne Reibel-Oberle 2:36:32
9. Sophie Happe 2:49:07
10. Kim Stüber 2:49:53
11. Lena Reschke 2:54:09
12. Janina Kasimir 3:04:11
13. Silke Will 3:10:15
14. Ulrike Volkenandt 3:14:42

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