Germany's Florian Wellbrock wins men's 10k marathon swimming gold
World champion Florian Wellbrock of Germany puts in commanding performance to win first men's 10k marathon swimming Olympic title by 25 seconds; defending champion Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands seventh
Marathon Swimming
Florian Wellbrock of Germany won gold in the men's 10km marathon swimming race at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
The 23-year-old German swimmer touched in 1:48:33.7 - 25.3 seconds in front of Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky in 1:48:59.0.
Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy took bronze in 1:49:01.1. He becomes the first Italian man to win an Olympic medal in marathon swimming.
The defending champion from the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands, finished seventh.
Wellbrock now has an Olympic gold medal from his first Olympic Games to the world championship titles he won in 2019 in Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
He is the only swimmer to win a gold medal in both the pool and open water swimming at a world championships. He won gold in the 10km open water swim and later won the 1500m event in the pool in Gwangju.
"The first 7km was really easy," said Wellbrock on leading almost the whole race. "The water wasn't really warm, so then I keep up the pace and the last leg was horrible.
"The temperature today was the biggest competitor. I beat it and I beat everything in this race."
Wellbrock led the race at Odaiba Marine Park from the start and was never outside of the top two.
At the halfway point, his lead was 4.2 seconds over Rasovszky, who tried to keep the German within touching distance as the race progressed.
With 500 metres to go, Wellbrock’s lead had increased to 16.3 seconds as he pushed for home.
He powered on to increase the lead to more than 25 seconds by the end as the temperature rose in Tokyo.
By winning the open water event, Wellbrock completed a similar record to the one he did made at the 2019 world championships.
Wellbrock also won a bronze in the 1500m freestyle in the pool, alongside his 10km marathon gold.
Paltrinieri also completed a similar medal double - he won the bronze in the 10km open water swimming event and a silver medal in the 800m freestyle in the pool.
This makes them the second and third swimmers to win a medal in the pool and marathon swimming at one Olympic Games.
The first was Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, who won gold in the 10km marathon swim and a bronze in the 1500m freestyle at the Olympic Games in London in 2012.