World Aquatics Championships 2023: It's Florian Wellbrock, Leonie Beck again for Germany in marathon swimming 5km

Germany's Florian Wellbrock and Leonie Beck doubled up in the men’s and women’s 5km, respectively, of the marathon swimming at the World Aquatics Championships 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan, on Tuesday (18 July).

Beck, who won the first gold medal of these championships on Saturday in the 10km, kicked things off by edging Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands by one second to finish in 59 minutes, 31.7 seconds.

Reigning Olympic champion Wellbrock followed suit an hour later by going wire-to-wire in the men’s race to touch in 53:58.0.

Wellbrock and Beck qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by winning the 10km, and added a cherry on the cake with their victories in the 5km.

“The feeling is amazing,” Wellbrock said. “It's the fifth medal for the team, fourth gold for the team and second world championships title for me. It's amazing.

"Support was amazing directly after the 10k. My fans, my family - everything was perfect. I had a good feeling for today. I was just looking for the gold medal and nothing more. In my mind it was just to win the race and it worked well.

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With van Rouwendaal in the lead and Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha right on her heel, Beck was in sixth place with less than a kilometre to go.

But just as she did in the 10km, Beck produced a fierce closing rush to overtake the front-runners for the victory - one that she was far from sure of prior to the race.

“I’m really happy. I didn't believe I could win a medal in the 5km after the hard 10km race,” the two-time Olympian said.

“The 10km event was also a qualification so that added a lot of pressure. Mentally it's not easy, but I'm really happy that I could win the 5km. I never would have thought of it.”

Wellbrock also reproduced his strategy from the 10km, leading from start to finish as the sun began to sizzle.

Marathon swimmer of the year, Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri, and his compatriot Domenico Acerenza hung around throughout but just did not have the final push to wrest the lead from Wellbrock.

“Today I started really fast,” he said. “In the 10km I decided to save a little bit of energy because my competition is much longer.

“Today, the conditions were much harder than the 10km. The warm temperature, the water conditions and the air temperature; 28 C in the water is much warmer than in the pool.

“I tried to push directly after the start and I think it was the key for the win today."