World Championships: Florian Wellbrock, Moesha Johnson Double Up with 5k Titles
Make it World Championships doubles for Germany’s Florian Wellbrock and Australia’s Moesha Johnson, as the open-water stars captured gold medals in the 5k events on Friday in Singapore. The latest victories from Wellbrock and Johnson complemented their victories on Wednesday in the 10k races and solidified their standing as the best open-water swimmers in the world.
Wellbrock captured his third world title in the 5 k event behind a time of 57:26.4, which was nearly three seconds faster than Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri (57:29.3), who was also the silver medalist in the 10k. The bronze medal went to Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier in 57:30.4. The gold medal was the eighth of Wellbrock’s World Champs career, with seven coming in open-water competition and one from the 1500 freestyle in 2019.
“I didn’t expect (this result) because I felt really tired after the 10k and we had just like 24 hours to recover,” Wellbrock said. “But luckily, everybody was tired because everybody competed in the 10k before. With these conditions, it’s tough because the human body isn’t made for racing in 30-degree water. So, I’m really happy with my gold.”
Photo Courtesy: World Aquatics
On the women’s side, Johnson fended off Italian Ginevra Taddeucci down the stretch, winning in 1:02:01.3. Johnson followed up her crown in the 10k by edging Taddeucci (1:02:02.3) by a second. Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto was the bronze medalist, finishing in 1:02:28.9. Taddeucci made several attempts to overtake Johnson in the latter stages of the race, but the Aussie had an answer each time.
“I was really tired today, so I wanted to try and guarantee myself a medal as early on as possible and there were just a couple of opportunities with some tight turns,” Johnson said. “If I didn’t make the break then, I don’t know what would have happened at the end. But once the group behind me was only Ginevra on my feet, it was much easier. But that was still a really challenging race. The 5k is much more intense so the heat was just felt a lot more today.”
