German Marco Koch is the 2015 World Champion in the 200 m breaststroke but he also is very fast in the combined event of all strokes: Today he touched the wall after 4:01,87 in the 400 m IM at the German Short Course Nationals. That is a new German national record and he is nominated now to swim the 400 m IM at the European Short Course Chamionships which will take place in early December in Netanya, Israel. Koch’s split times: 57,90; 1:00,79; 1:05,22; 57,96.
16 year old Johannes Hintze is the new German Vice-Champion in the 400 m IM – Hintze is a multiple German age group record holder and one of the most promising youngsters in Germany. He proofed that with another age group record today on the 400 m in 4:09,45 minutes. On the other end, though, Jacob Heidtmann had a bad start into the German Championships, getting disqualified in his signature event, the 400 m IM – he swam the second fastest time of the evening before the DQ. Heidtmann gained his biggest international success in Kazan with a fifth place on the 400 IM.
German National Head Coach Henning Lambertz stated earlier this week that the German SC Nationals are „a possibility to make some conclusions about the performance level at the end of the first macro cycle of the Olympic season. The athletes compare their times with those of recent years and work with their home coaches in the upcoming months on the road to Rio on the gained insights.“ Obviously some athletes like Koch and Hintze are on a good path – joined by more very fast perfomances today:
Ruwen Straub won the 1500 m freestyle in 14.31,94 minutes – this is the second fastest time in a 25 m pool in 2015 so far. In the women’s 800 m freestye, 17 year old Alina Jungklaus won gold in a new German age group record of 8:24,24 minutes. And another German national title went to Franziska Hentke, who touched first in the 400 IM in 4:33,53 minutes.
Refering to a publication of German swimsportnews (swimsportnews.de), many German top swimmers already have stated that they are not willing to compete in Israel because of the attacks in Paris last week and serious security concerns. Maro Koch on the other hand said that he will swim at the European Short Course Championships.
The German Short Course Nationals continue tomorrow with heats and finals in the women’s 100 m freestyle, 100 m breaststroke, 400 m freestyle, 50 m butterfly, 200 m backstroke and a 4 X 50 m freestyle relay. On the men’s side Paul Biedermann is expected to swim the 200 m freestyle on friday and Marco Koch will compete in the 100 m breaststroke. The further events are the 50 m backstroke, 100 m breaststroke, 50 m butterfly and 4 X 50 m freestyle relay.
Event website: http://www.kurzbahndm2015.de