With the conclusion of the German Open this past weekend, Germany has now determined its 38-member roster for the 2015 FINA World Championships. Highlighting the lineup are elite swimmers Paul Biedermann, Marco Koch, Steffen Deibler and Franziska Hentke.
Biedermann is still on the books as the world record holder in the men’s 200m freestyle, with the 1:42.00 mark he registered at the 2009 World Championships in Rome. The record is by far one of the most elusive of the times still remaining from the supersuit era. Biedermann also still holds the 400m freestyle record (3:40.07) from that same meet. Currently, Biedermann holds the fastest time of 2015 in the 200m free with his 1:45.60 he earned in April at German Nationals.
Koch is becoming quite the 200m breaststroke threat, clocking a 2:08.57 at the Mare Nostrum meet in Canet. That time ranks Koch as 3rd-fastest in the world in the event so far this year. For his part, Deibler’s strongest event is the 100m butterfly, an event in which the 28-year old finished 4th at the London Olympic Games, as well as in 4th at the 2013 World Championships.
Franziska Hentke put herself on the map this past weekend after registering a red-hot 200m butterfly time of 2:05.26 as the fastest of 2015. That mark pushed Hentke past Australia’s Madeline Groves, who had held the world ranking’s top spot with her time of 2:05.41 from Australian National Championships in April. Hentke’s best time from 2014 was 2:07.67, so it will be interesting to see if her 2:05-mark was a fluke, or if this German is ready to take on the world for the title in Kazan.
Germany’s roster lists eight swimmers going to Kazan, led by a trio of women in Angela Maurer, Isabelle Harle, and Finnia Wunram. On the men’s side, this is the first major international open swimming event for Germany after its star open water swimmer, Thomas Lurz, announced his retirement. The 2011 and 2013 FINA Open Water Swimmer of the Year decided to call it quits just this past May.
Full German Worlds Roster Below:
Women (13):
Dorothea Brandt
Isabelle Härle
Annika Bruhn
Marlene Huether
Leonie Antonia Beck
Franziska Hentke
Sarah Köhler
Jenny Mensing
Alexandra Wenk
Lisa Graf
Vanessa Grimberg
Johanna Friedrich
Theresa Michalak
Men (18):
Sören Meissner
Ruwen Straub
Hendrik Feldwehr
Christian from Lehn
Christian Diener
Carl Louis Black
Jan-Philip Glania
Marco di Carli
Steffen Deibler
Marco Koch
Paul Biedermann
Clemens Rapp
Jacob Heidtmann
Florian Vogel
Kevin Wedel
Alexander Kunert
Christoph Fildebrandt
Maximilian Oswald
Open Water Women (3):
Angela Maurer
Isabelle Härle
Finnia Wunram
Open Water Men (5):
Christian Reichert
Alexander Studzinski
Rob Muffels
Florian Wellbrock
Andreas Waschburger