On Saturday and Sunday, Germany’s swimming league „1. Bundesliga“ had it’s final event in Essen for women and men.
The German National Team Championships are an event for German swim clubs – each club must swim the Olympic program over three sessions (two on Saturday, one on Sunday) but there are no relays. Every swimmer is only allowed to swim in 5 different individual short course events. The achieved times are converted into points according to the FINA scoreboard.
The German swim club SV Würzburg 05 won the title this year in the women’s and men’s competition. Here are the final results:
Women
1. SV Würzburg 05 28301
2. SG Essen 27584
3. SV Nikar Heidelberg 27232
Men
1. SV Würzburg 05 28544
2. 1. Potsdamer SV 28154
3. SG Essen 27742
All top swimmers are untapered for this meet because of their preparations for the long course season, but nevertheless they showed some solid performances over the last two days: Top scorer was Christian Diener (1. Potsdamer SV) with 50,72 in the 100m backstroke, worth 897 points and he also showed a good perfomance in the 200m backstroke in 1:51,18.
Long distance swimmers Ruwen Straub (SV Würzburg 05, winner in the men’s competition) and Florian Wellbrock (SC Magdeburg) collected important points for their teams: Straub finished his 1500m freestyle race in 1:44,57 – worth 881 points and Wellbrock was close behind in 14:47,96, he grabbed 871 points. Straub’s teammate Sören Meißner scored 876 points in the 1500m freestyle in 4:46,27 Minuten. Würzburg and Magdeburg are the German strongholds for long distance swimmers.
Sarah Köhler (SG Frankfurt) posted a 8:25,75 in the 800m freestyle and also Leonie Beck (SV Würzburg, winner in the women’s competition) showed a solid perfomance with a time of 8:27,23. Beck clocked a 4:04,20 in the 400m freestyle – important 885 points for her team.
Poul Zellmann (SG Essen) fought for every point – he gained 852 in the 400m freestyle in 3:43,82 and 878 in the 1500m freestyle in 14:45,46. Fastest 50m freestyle swimmer was his teammate Damian Wierling in 21,63.
Always worth a 800+ performance was Franziska Hentke (SC Magdeburg) – she posted a 2:06,68 in the 200m butterfly.
The winning teams of the SV Würzburg had internatonal support, among others Hungarian swim star Zsuzsanna Jakabos, who finished 1:56,41 in the 200m free and 24,22 in the 50m free.
Germany’s world champion Marco Koch swam for his team DSW 1912 Darmstadt in the second league – and posted a 15:48,28 in the 1500m freestyle, 2:05,77 in the 200m breaststroke. He clocked a 1:57,25 in the 200m IM and 4:12,94 in the 400m IM – his team will advance to the first league in 2018.