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Gold again! German Open Water relay wins surprisingly in South Korea
The German open water swimmers have surprisingly won gold in the season at the World Cup in South Korea. Lea Boy, Sarah Köhler, Sören Meißner and Rob Muffels won on Thursday after 4 x 1.25 kilometers in 53: 58.7 minutes. Italy finished second, while the USA Quartet beat third.
After gold for Florian Wellbrock and Bronze for Muffels over ten kilometers and the third place of Leonie Beck over half the distance, it is already the fourth medal for the team of national coach Stefan Lurz at the World Championships in Yeosu. The 25-kilometer races are still pending.
Final swimmer Muffels: "presented us great"
"The three of us did a great job, I just had the job of keeping the Italians and passing in the final sprint," said final swimmer Muffels. "We presented ourselves as a whole German team here super."
Even without top swimmer Florian Wellbrock showed the German season a very strong performance. The team from which the silver winners of last year's European Championships in Glasgow Köhler and Meißner swam was not deterred by the undulating conditions in the harbor basin of the 2012 World Exhibition Center compared to the previous days.
Meißner swam from eighth to the top
In the rain World Cup debutant Boy was the starting swimmer and handed in fifth to Köhler. The friend of world champion Wellbrock, who also starts in the pool, changed as Eighth, Meissner took over. The 29-year-old swam the quartet to the top. The gave Muffels in a duel with the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri and the Americans Michael Brinegar no more.
Open water national coach Lurz had called a top ten place before the race as "okay". That it could go so well, that was not to be expected. At the previous World Championships in Budapest two years ago, the German open water swimmers were still driving home without a single medal.
Wellbrock, who had played his part in European Championship silver last year in Scotland, was sparing himself for the pelvic competitions next week. Then he wants to start in Yeosu over 1500 and 800 meters freestyle.