Marius Kusch Takes 100 Fly German National Title, While Teen Goerigk Wins 4IM

2019 GERMAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Berlin, Germany
• Thursday, August 1st – Sunday, August 4th
• Europa-Sportpark (SSE)
• SwimSwam Deutsche Preview
• Meet Site
• Startlists/Results
• Live Stream

The 2019 German Swimming Championships got underway in Berlin, with both age groupers and veterans alike taking to the Europa-Sportpark pool vying for national titles.

Poul Zellmann got the job done in the men’s 400m IM to get things started, with the 23-year-old producing a winning time of 4:19.36. That checked in as the only performance under the 4:20 threshold among the finalists and also marks a big-time new personal best for Zellmann.

Neither the German National Record holder Jacob Heidtmann, nor the 2018 German title winner Ramon Klenz were in tonight’s race.

As for the women’s edition of the 400m IM, it was Giulia Goerigk who landed on top of the podium, hitting a lifetime best of 4:44.33 to take the first German National title of her young career. Goerigk’s time tonight laid waste to her previous PB of 4:47.78 logged at this year’s European Junior Championship where the 16-year-old finished in 8th place overall.

Team Elite-trained Marius Kusch brought home the 100m fly title tonight, posting a winning effort of 52.40. That beat out challenger Klenz, who produced a silver medal-worthy time of 52.62 to represent the only other swimmer to clock a sub-53 second time in the final.

For Kusch, the 26-year-old is coming off of a World Championsihpsp appearance in the men’s 100m fly final, where the German touched in a time 51.66 to place 8th overall in Gwangju.

Lisa Hopink took the women’s 100m fly title, placing first in a time of 58.76, less than half a second off of her own PB of 58.43 from Eindhoven this year. Taking out her race in a feisty 27.22 opener, Hopink held on to hold off Aliena Schmidtke, who wound up hitting the wall only .13 later in 58.89. The 2 women were the only swimmers to dip under the minute barrier in the A-final.

The men’s 200m back saw Christian Diener get gold in 1:57.39, while Sarah Kohler beat the field handily in the women’s 1500m free, clocking 16:03.35 to win by over 31 seconds. Runner-up Celine Rieder registered the Junior National title in 16:34.82.

Kohler took the silver in the 1500m in Gwangju at the just-concluded World Championships, producing a new German National Record of 15:48.83 in the process. Her time tonight checks-in as her 6th fastest ever.