The clock is ticking for the German swimmers because the qualification period for the European LC Championships 2018 will expire on April, 29th.
The Swim Cup Eindhoven and the Bergen Swim Festival were two of the last chances for the athletes to crack the nomination standards. The German Swimmining Federation (DSV) sent 35 swimmers officially to the Swim Cup including many youngsters who will try to qualify for the European LC Youth Championships in July in Helsinki.
The journey to Eindhoven was part of a cooperation with the Dutch Swimming Federation, Netherlands national squad will participate at the German Open which are held in Berlin from April 20 – 22.
The next weekend will count. SC World record holder Marco Koch couldn’t haven’t managed to fullfill the norm times in a prelim and final race at the same meet so far and also European SC and LC Champion and World LC Championships silver medalist Franziska Hentke was only near the nomination standards in the 200m butterfly.
The German Swimming Federation (DSV) lowered the standards for the relays. At the moment, all relays except the men’s 4x100m freestyle, will participate in Glasgow. This step has motivated many athletes to fight for the relay spots because normally relay swimmers also get a chance to compete in an individual event. It is allowed for every European Nation to enter up to FOUR athletes per event.
Florian Welllbrock not only stayed under the required norm at the Swim Open in Stockholm last weekend, he also improved a 27 year old German record and set a new 2018 World best time in the 1500 freestyle, posting 14:40,69. Wellbrock also could dip under the norm for swimmers born 1996 or later in the 400m and 800m freestyle. So did Henning Mühlleitner in the 400m freestyle with a time of 3:46,98.
Germany’s long distance pool swimmers have done a great job so far en route to participate in the 2018 European LC Championships: Sarah Köhler has qualified for the 800m and 1500m freestyle, Leonie Beck cracked the U23 standard in the 800m freestyle and Celine Rieder in the 1500m freestyle.
Damian Wierling was fast enough in the 50m freestyle (22,26). Philip Heintz posted the second fastest 200m IM time in the actual World ranking at the Bergen Swim Festival (1:56,67) and Johannes Hintze reached the goal time in the 400m IM at the Swim Cup in Eindhoven in his prelim’s race in 4:17,76.
Below you find the German nomination standards, the qualified swimmers.
| Already qualified swimmers are printed in bold letters. Nomination times which are FASTER than the acutall German national record are printed in bold numbers. | ||||||
| Women | Nomination time – Prelims | Nomination time – Final | German National Record | |||
| Event | Born (year) | Open/born 1996 or later | Open/born 1996 or later | |||
| Fastest German in 2017/2018 | ||||||
| 50 Freestyle | Köhler, Angelina | 2000 | 00:25,56 | 0:24,82/0:25,18 | 0:24,53/0:25,05 | 00:23,73 |
| 100 Freestyle | Bruhn, Annika | 1993 | 00:54,76 | 0:54,50/0:54,90 | 0:53,53/0:54,63 | 00:52,07 |
| 200 Freestyle | Bruhn, Annika | 1993 | 01:58,71 | 1:57,74/1:58,68 | 1:56,63/1:58,09 | 01:55,68 |
| 400Freestyle | Köhler, Sarah | 1994 | 04:09,72 | 4:04,36/4:10,57** | — | 04:05,84 |
| 800 Freestyle | Köhler, Sarah, also qualified: Beck, Leonie | 1997 | 08:20,53 | — | 8:25,55/8:38,56* | 08:19,53 |
| 1500 Freestyle | Köhler,Sarah, also qualified: Celine Rieder (2001) | 1994 | 15:59,83 | 16:20,98/16:38,31 | 15:59,83 | |
| 100 Breaststroke | Steiger, Jessica | 1992 | 01:07,77 | 1:07,32/1:07,58 | 1:06,73/1:07,24 | 01:07,01 |
| 200 Breaststroke | Steiger, Jessica | 1992 | 02:25,79 | 2:26,58/2:25,91 | 2:22,87/2:26,58 | 02:25,00 |
| 100 Backstroke | Riedemann, Laura | 1998 | 01:00,28 | 1:00,89/1:00,61 | 0:59,35/1:00,31 | 00:59,77 |
| 200 Backstroke | Mensing, Jenny | 1986 | 02:09,83 | 2:10,68/2:11,53 | 2:08,84/2:10,87 | 02:07,83 |
| 100 Butterfly | Schmidtke, Aliena | 1992 | 00:59,04 | 0:58,15/0:58,48 | 0:57,51/0:58,19 | 00:57,70 |
| 200 Butterfly | Hentke, Franziska | 1989 | 02:07,90 | 2:09,21/2:09,77 | 2:07,22/2:09,12 | 02:05,26 |
| 200 IM | Wenk, Alexandra | 1995 | 02:15,23 | 2:13,01/2:13,41 | 2:10,87/2:12,74 | 02:11,33 |
| 400 IM | Hentke, Franziska | 1989 | 04:47,98 | 4:36,54/4:43,06** | — | 04:36,10 |
| MEN | ||||||
| 50 Freestyle | Wierling, Damian | 96 | 00:22,19 | 0:22,10/0:22,47 | 0:21,80/0:22,36 | 00:21,81 |
| 100 Freestyle | Wierling, Damian | 96 | 00:48,60 | 0:48,58/0:48,93 | 0:48,23/0:48,69 | 00:48,24 |
| 200 Freestyle | Mühlleitner, Henning | 97 | 01:47,80 | 1:47,15/1:47,73 | 1:46,23/1:47,19 | 01:42,00 |
| 400 Freestyle | Mühlleitner, Henning, also qualified: Florian Wellbrock | 97 | 03:46,98 | 3:45,43/3:48,15** | — | 03:40,07 |
| 800 Freestyle | Wellbrock, Florian | 97 | 07:46,85 | 7:50,97/7:54,31* | 07:46,85 | |
| 1500 Freestyle | Wellbrock, Florian | 97 | 14:40,69 | — | 14:55,40/15:12,79* | 14:40,69 |
| 100 Breaststroke | Schwingenschlögl, Fabian | 92 | 01:00,06 | 1:00,26/1:00,35 | 0:59,45/1:00,05 | 00:59,15 |
| 200Breaststroke | Koch, Marco | 90 | 02:09,49 | 2:11,26/2:11,11 | 2:08,20/2:10,45 | 02:07,47 |
| 100Backstroke | Diener, Christian | 93 | 00:54,74 | 0:53,99/0:54,06 | 0:53,34/0:53,79 | 00:52,27 |
| 200 Backstroke | Diener, Christian | 93 | 01:57,81 | 1:57,58/1:58,55 | 1:56,37/1:57,96 | 01:55,87 |
| 100 Butterfly | Kusch, Marius | 91 | 00:52,22 | 0:52,08/0:52,29 | 0:51,73/0:52,03 | 00:51,19 |
| 200 Butterfly | Kunert, Alexander | 98 | 01:57,42 | 1:56,72/1:57,28 | 1:56,03/1:56,69 | 01:56,24 |
| 200 IM | Heintz, Philip | 91 | 01:56,67 | 1:59,77/2:00,22 | 1:58,85/1:59,62 | 01:57,48 |
| 400 IM | Hintze, Johannes | 99 | 04:15,76 | 4:13,55/4:17,90** | — | 04:12,08 |
| * one time proof in the qualification period | ||||||
| ** in a prelim’s race | ||||||