Marco Koch can relax and smile – he is already qualified for the German National Swim Team for Rio. The nomination procedure in Germany is a little bit complicated – so here is a short reminder:
The 2016 German National Championships were the first part of a two-step nomination procedure for the Olympic Games. The athletes had to swim defined times at National Championships in prelims and in finals. All swimmers who achieved the times would have been part of the so called “long list” and informed German Head Coach Henning Lambertz in the period of one week after German Nationals in which meet they wanted to confirm the required second performance of the nomination process: at one of the three meets of the Mare Nostrum tour or the German Open. They could only choose ONE of these four possibilities. For these meets, other times have beeen set which are approximately 1,5 % slower than those at German nationals.
All swimmers who reach the times and have also finished first or second at the German National Championships will qualify for Rio.
The German Swimming Federation (DSV) announced the intermediate results. The following athletes have already qualified during the Mare Nostrum series for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio:
Paul Biedermann (200m Freestyle), Marco Koch (200m Breaststroke) Jan-Philip Glania (100m, 200m Backstroke), Jacob Heidtmann (400m IM), Johannes Hintze (400m IM) Florian Vogel (400m Freestyle), Florian Wellbrock (1500m Freestyle), Dorothea Brandt (50m Freestyle), Franziska Hentke (200m Butterfly), Alexandra Wenk (100m Butterfly, 200m IM).
Some swimmers will try to achieve the final qualification at the German Open (July, 05.- 08., Berlin). Munich’s freestyle expert Florian Vogel made the Rio Olympic team yet – but he also wants to swim the 200 m freestyle in addition to 400 m. Vogel needs to fight with Christoph Fildebrandt for the second individual spot alongside Paul Biedermann – Vogel and Fildebrandt must reach the nomination standards in prelims and finals at the German Open – if both crack the standard time then Florian Vogel may start in Rio because he finished second at the German Championships – but Christoph Fildebrandt will get a spot in the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay.
Among those who have chosen the German Open for the second qualification step are: Damian Wierling (50m Freestyle), Florian Vogel (200m Freestyle), Christoph Fildebrandt (200m Freestyle) , Christian Diener (200m Backstroke), Philip Heintz (200m IM) , Leonie Beck (800m Freestyle), Sarah Köhler (400m, 800m Freestyle), Lisa Graf (200m Backstroke).
Source: Dsv.de
Let’s not forget about Björn Hornikel