The first final on the third day of the German Short Course Championships in Wuppertal was the 800 m freestyle for men. This event isn’t in the program of the European Short Course Championships, which will take place from December 2 to 6 in Netanya, Israel. The national German record was held by Paul Biedermann in 7:35.23 – but Florian Vogel set a new German record in the final tonight in 7:33,44, ahead of Ruven Straub (7: 38.36) and Sören Meissner (7; 46,02). Fourth place finisher Henning Mühlleitner swam a new age group record for the 18-year-old in 7: 48.98.
Franziska Hentke owned the 200 m butterfly race from start to finish and touched for the win in
2:03.86 just a little bit above her German record of 2:03.47. The silver and bronze went to Swiss swimmer Martina van Berkel (2:07,92), who starts for the German swim club SV Nikar Heidelberg and Lisa Höpink in 2:08.45. Franziska was fourth at the World Championships in Kazan this summer on her signature event and still ranks first in the World Ranking in the LC event in 2: 05.26 minutes.
In the men’s 200 m butterfly Markus Gierke and Philip Heintz showed a tough battle from start to finish and Gierke got his hand at the wall first in 1:53,61 followed closely by Heintz in 1:53,63, just ahead of Kevin Wedel in 1:54,20. In this event, the German National Record owner is Thomas Rupprath who set the best time in 2001 with a 1:51,21.
In the records list of the men’s 100 m IM, there is only one name: Markus Deibler who retired from competitive swimming earlier this year and who holds the World, European and German record at 50,66 seconds. Deibler is the 2014 SC World Champion. The new 2015 German Champion in this event is Dominik Franke who clocked 53,81.
Steffen Deibler took the men’s 100 m freestyle in 47,43 seconds. On the 50 m breaststroke the defending champion Marco Koch scratched tonight’s final. Hendrik Feldwehr touched for the win in 26,88.
Not less than four swimmers from Germany’s swim club SG Essen had the chance to take this year’s title in the female’s 50 m breaststroke – Dorothea Brandt collected gold in 30,46 seconds ahead of her teammate Caroline Ruhnau (30,82) and Nicole Heidemann in 31,10 seconds.
German record holder Theresa Michalak, who studies and trains in Florida, didn’t perform in the 200 m IM this year. Alexandra Wenk took the win in 2:08,73. Jan-Philip Glania placed first in the 200m backstroke in 1:53,24, he shared the podium with Andreas Wiesner (1:53,70) and Felix Wolf (1:54,86). Annika Bruhn took the win in the women’s 200 m freestyle in 1:56,30.
Head coach Henning Lambertz said before the start of the German Short Course Championships in an interview with the organizers (SV Bayer Wuppertal eV; source: this year’s event booklet) that he wants to get back among the top swimming nations in Europe. As a weak point on the way he sees the small budget with about 2 million Euros (2.140.000 USD) that is available to him but he stated that the German Swimming Federation (DSV) is on the right track
Some age group records could be set up in the heats today –and that can be a result of Lambertz’s strategy to focus on the youngster’s development.
Johannes Hintze set again a new age group record with 49.09 seconds in the 100 free – he is 16 years old. Only 13 years old is Isabelle Gose who finished her 200 m freestyle prelims’ race in the 100m freestyle in 2:02.05 minutes. Yongster Peter Varjasi (15) clocked 57,06 seconds in the 100 IM in heats and swam faster in the evening’s B final in 56,99 seconds.
Tomorrow is the last day of the competition:
Women
1500 m freestyle, 50 m freestyle, 200 m breaststroke, 100 m butterfly, 100 m backstroke, 100 m IM
Men
100 m butterfly, 200 m breaststroke, 200 m IM, 400 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, 50 m freestyle