At the FINA Swimming World Cup in Berlin, Isabel Gose ensured a successful conclusion for the team of the German Swimming Federation (DSV). In the first women’s race of the third and final day of the competition, the 20-year-old from SC Magdeburg crawled to victory over the 800m freestyle in 8:14.88 minutes, Sarah Wellbrock was able to celebrate a silver medal on her comeback on the international stage (8:23.07) .
“I’m very happy that I can perform more and more consistently and show my strengths at such an early stage in the season,” said Gose. And made a declaration of love for her home town: “I used to be here as a basket child and got autographs from stars like Britta Steffen. Now being up there myself with a gold medal is something special for me.” Sarah Wellbrock had not expected a medal on her international comeback after a quieter season with a focus on her law studies. “After such a long break, I’m very satisfied with this time,” said the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist (JPN). “I really love competitions, especially in front of such a great backdrop. And that’s why I’m also happy when things get quieter for at university starting January.”
Then the fight for the World Cup victory raged at the start of the series in Berlin, for which it took three particularly strong times in addition to three top positions. The winner’s check for 12,000 US dollars went to Siobahn Haughey (HKG), who finished the 100m freestyle in 51.59 seconds. The short course world champion had previously triumphed in the 200m and 400m freestyle. “I’m happy with where I am now in terms of my training and how everything has gone, but there are still a lot of things I can work on. It’s far from perfect,” Haughey said. And it sounded like a threat to the competition for the following World Cups in Toronto (CAN/October 28-30) and Indianapolis (USA/November 3-5).
European record for Ruta Meilutyte
Beata Nelson (USA), who was leading after two days, even managed to win two more 200m backstroke (2:02.59) and 200m individual medley (2:06.80) in the last part of the final, but in the end she was 1.2 points short of Haughey. Back specialist Kylie Masse (CAN) was third in the meeting ranking ahead of Ruta Meilutyte (LTU). This set a European record on Sunday in 28.60 seconds over 50m breaststroke, just four hundredths missing the world record bonus of 10,000 US dollars. Isabel Gose, the best German, finished 19th in the Berlin World Cup rankings and can look forward to a prize of US$ 4,100.
When the Swede Louise Hansson (55.33 seconds) won the 100m butterfly, Angelina Köhler (57.60) also took fourth place. “It’s a good performance so soon after the start of the season. But now it’s time for altitude training in order to be much faster before the short course World Championships in December,” said the fourth-placed athlete at the European Championships, who had moved from Hanover to Berlin to the federal base in the summer.
