German-made Speed: Rob Muffels Heading To Tokyo
German-made Speed: Rob Muffels Heading To Tokyo
Courtesy of FINA, Yeosu EXPO Ocean Park, Gwangju, South Korea.
Florian Wellbrock won the FINA World Championships 10 km marathon swim, but he was nearly always up near or in the lead during the race.
In contrast, Rob Muffels truly came from behind. At the second loop, The German found himself in 24th place well behind the leaders, posing no threat. Even by the midway point at 5 km, Muffels had only conservatively moved up to 20th place overall.
But there was no denying he in the second half of the race where he negative split by a wide margin despite the rough-and-tumble second half where 7 yellow cards were issued by Chief FINA Referee Bill Ford.
As silver medalist Marc-Antoine Olivier said, “People fight for an [Olympic] spot.”
Muffels commented, “I am totally relieved with the results, there was a lot of pressure, but it’s off me now. Four years ago I missed the qualification for the Rio Olympic Games. I have been working for eight years as a professional swimmer, always with the goal of Olympic qualification.
Florian and I worked together and today’s result is a world champion and bronze medallist for Germany, it’s amazing and it’s great for open water swimming in our country. We have a great team atmosphere in Germany and we know that the French do as well. Both countries have two big teams and a lot of great coaching and professional staff support. There are many similarities between our groups, with lots of high speed endurance and fast swimming training.
We also have a rich history of open water swimming. Florian and I have learned a lot from Thomas Lurz and also from Angela Maurer, two legendary German open water swimmers and multiple times world champions. In the end, it’s about experience and hard work.”
Men’s 10 km Olympic Qualification Race Results:
German-made Speed: Rob Muffels Heading To Tokyo- Florian Wellbrock (Germany) 1:47:55.90
- Marc-Antoine Olivier (France) 1:47:56.10
- Rob Muffels (Germany) 1:47:57.40
- Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary) 1:47:59.50
- Jordan Wilimovsky (USA) 1:48:01.00
- Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) 1:48:01.00
- Ferry Weertman (Netherlands) 1:48:01.90
- Alberto Martinez (Spain) 1:48:02.20
- Mario Sanzullo (Italy) 1:48:04.70
- David Aubry (France) 1:48:05.10
- Esteban Enderica Salgado (Ecuador) 1:48:07.30
- Jack Burnell (Great Britain) 1:48:09.90
- Athanasios Charalampos Kynigakis (Greece) 1:48:15.40
- Kai Graeme Edwards (Australia) 1:48:16.20
- Logan Vanhuys (Belgium) 1:48:17.50
- Matej Kozubek (Czech Republic) 1:48:19.10
- Han-Li Fan (Canada) 1:48:21.10
- Tobias Patrick Robinson (Great Britain) 1:48:23.50
- Kirill Abrosimov (Russia) 1:48:55.90
- Matan Roditi (Israel) 1:48:59.60
- Nicholas Sloman (Australia) 1:49:22.70
- Evgenii Drattcev (Russia) 1:49:37.40
- Chad Ho (South Africa) 1:49:37.90
- Jon Thomas McKay (Canada) 1:49:43.70
- David Heron (USA) 1:49:57.60
- Krzysztof Pielowski (Poland) 1:50:02.80
- Daniel Szekelyi (Hungary) 1:50:11.30
- Guillem Pujol (Spain) 1:50:11.60
- Jiabao An (China) 1:50:14.00
- Danie Marais (South Africa) 1:50:14.20
- David Castro (Ecuador) 1:50:14.40
- Phillip Seidler (Nambia) 1:50:14.40
- Allan do Carmo (Brazil) 1:50:14.70
- Victor Johansson (Sweden) 1:50:14.80
- Victor Colonese (Brazil) 1:50:15.20
- Diego Vera (Venezuela) 1:50:15.60
- Elliot Sodemann (Sweden) 1:50:16.00
- Ous Mellouli (Tunisia) 1:50:21.00
- Takeshi Toyoda (Japan) 1:50:22.00
- Santiago Arteta (Argentina) 1:50:24.10
- Vit Ingeduld (Czech Republic) 1:50:24.90
- Rafael Gil (Portugal) 1:50:27.30
- Yuval Safray (Israel) 1:50:34.20
- David Brandl (Austria) 1:51:26.30
- Taiki Nonaka (Japan) 1:51:35.30
- Joaquin Moreno (Argentina) 1:51:45.70
- Aflah Fadlan Prawira (Indonesia) 1:52:33.80
- Tamas Farkas (Serbia) 1:52:36.70
- Tiago Campost (Portugal) 1:52:39.30
- Arturo Perez Vertti Ferrer (Mexico) 1:52:42.60
- Evgenij Pop Acev (Macedonia) 1:52:43.00
- Igor Chervynskiy (Ukraine) 1:52:45.20
- Seokhyun Park (Korea) 1:52:47.60
- Junbohang Zhao (China) 1:52:52.70
- Wilder Carreno (Venezuela) 1:52:53.50
- Marwan Elamrawy (Egypt) 1:54:40.80
- Fernando Betanzos (Mexico) 1:56:07.90
- Mathieu Mathy Ben Rahou (Morocco) 1:56:07.90
- Jaehun Park (Korea) 1:56:41.40
- Lev Cherepanov (Kazakhstan) 1:58:04.40
- William Yan Thorley (Hong Kong) 1:59:36.80
- Rodrigo Caballero (Bolivia) 1:59:41.50 64.
- Chin Ting Keith Sin (Hong Kong) 2:00:21.90
- Tomas Peciart (Slovakia) 2:00:24.20
- Maximiliano Paccot (Uruguay) 2:00:24.50
- Damien Payet (Seychelles) 2:00:27.60
- Tanakrit Kittiyat (Thailand) 2:00:37.10
- Sushrut Suryakant Kapse (India) 2:03:25.90
- Santiago Reyes (Guatemala) 2:08:27.50
- Zedheir Torrez (Bolivia) 2:08:27.70
- Siwat Matangkapong (Thailand) 2:09:32.80
- Rinel Pius (Estonia) 2:09:56.00
- Cristofer Lanuza (Costa Rica) 2:10:16.80
- Alain Vidot (Seychelles) OLT
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.
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