Germany’s Steffen Deibler closed the 2013 German National Championships with a bang, continuing a theme of the men’s meet where he and younger brother Markus dominated the action in Berlin.
Steffen Deibler won the men’s 100 fly to begin the last session of the meet on Sunday. But this swim wasn’t just a win; his 51.19 is a new German Record and establishes him as the favorite to take over the 100 fly mantle from Michael Phelps: that swim is faster than anyone aside from Phelps swam in 2012, and only Poland’s Konrad Czerniak was better in 2010 or 2011.
Philip Heintz was 2nd in 52.29.
Steffen Deibler would add a win in the 50 free as well, swimming a 22.16 to place half-a-second better than the rest of the field.
In the women’s 100 meter fly race, 18 year old Alexandra Wenk won in 59.04, followed by Theresa Michalak in 59.42. For Wenk, that’s a new German 18 year olds National Record, but is actually half-a-second slower than she was at this meet last year. It’s short of the FINA World Championship qualifying standard, surprising given that this is her best race, though having already made the roster in other events, don’t be surprised to see her swimming the 100 fly in Barcelona.
Johanna Friedrich won a lackluster women’s 200 freestyle in 2:00.13, followed by a 2:00.96 from Leonie Beck. That is a relay for the future, as the top four finishers are all 18 & under (including the 15-year old runner-up).
In the men’s 200 free, Clemens Rapp won and qualified for Worlds in 1:47.13, followed by USC-trained Dmitri Colupaev (1:47.54). In most years, one of the two individual spots at the World Championships would be usurped by the World Record holder Paul Biedermann; with him sitting this season out to battle injury, though, that means it will be Colupaev who swims through to Barcelona.
The Germans, in fact, even without the services of the great Biedermann still have a respectable relay. Tim Wallburger and 400 IM champions Yannick Lebherz were also under the FINA Automatic Qualifying time.
In the men’s 200 breaststroke, Christian vom Lehn blew away the field in the final with a 2:08.81 for the win. That was 5-seconds better than the runner-up; Germany has great breaststroke depth, but most of it lies in the sprintier 100 meter race, which means vom Lehn swims mostly alone domestically in the 200.
There were little in the way of notable times in either 100 backstroke, though Philip Wolf won the men’s race in 54.93.