2023-07-15 12:25:02
With a spectacular final sprint, Leonie Beck won gold over 10 kilometers in open water at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Saturday (07/15/2023) – as a bonus, she managed to qualify for the Olympics.
As the national anthem sounded, Leonie Beck looked for the German flag – and found it with a grin on a screen on the roof of a van.
It was the only time that the new open water world champion briefly lost her bearings: In the sea off Fukuoka, the 26-year-old had stalked her competitors for more than ten kilometers and then overtook them with a spectacular final sprint.
“I swam for my life”
“I was the one who wanted it the most. I swam for my life,” said Beck, who mightn’t explain exactly how she passed Australian Chelsea Gubecka and American Katie Grimes at the last buoy. In the camera images, she initially moved to the right, but in the next long shot she was suddenly two lengths ahead.
“That’s how I perceived it too,” said the European champion from Rome, laughing. After a good half of the distance, the Würzburg native, who has been living and training in Italy for two years, was 17.9 seconds behind in 17th place.
Forces allocated optimally
“I didn’t want to waste so much energy at the beginning,” she explained: “Everything worked well, I divided my strength well, everything was fine. Tactically, I did everything right.” After the strong finish and the attack 4.1 seconds ahead of Gubecka, Beck was already thinking regarding a year ahead. “Being world champion is very special,” she said, “but qualifying for the Olympics now was all I wanted here.”
As one of the first three, she already bought the ticket for Paris 2024 – she can approach the next World Cup in February in a relaxed manner. Her Würzburg club colleague Lea Boy, on the other hand, has to invest everything: following seventh place in the Momochi Seaside Park, 38.9 seconds behind, the 23-year-old gets a second chance at the Olympics in Qatar.
Hansmann is pleased with the “made-to-measure start”
The fact that the German anthem sounded immediately following the first medal decision at the World Championships was rated by competitive sports director Christian Hansmann from the German Swimming Association (DSV) as a “made-to-measure start”. The former open water swimmer didn’t know when that was last.
For Beck, who has been in the absolute world class since the Corona compulsory break, Hansmann found only the highest praise: “She pulled her own boot through, swam her own tactics, that paid off.”
Switched to Italian training group
The Würzburg native made an enormous leap in performance following her fifth place at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, following which she switched to the Italian training group around superstar Gregorio Paltrinieri just outside Rome. “She’s training in the sea in Italy, that’s good for her,” said Hansmann. “It’s something new, you develop further,” said Beck herself regarding her move to Ostia, “I have a super cool training group, she’s my second family.”
Even if she has already achieved her most important goal in Japan, she wants to further expand her World Cup record. “Everything that comes now is a bonus,” said Beck, who has won four medals at world championships so far, “but I’ll continue to give 110 percent.” Over five kilometers and in the relay she is still at the start.
Jumpers all missed the podium by far
The jumpers, on the other hand, did not go as smoothly. A year following bronze in their joint World Championship debut, Timo Barthel and Lars Rüdiger clearly missed another medal from the 3-meter board in Fukuoka. The duo from Halle/Saale and Berlin took a disappointing tenth place in the synchronized jumping final with 370.26 points. Almost 20 points were missing from bronze.
Gold went to the Chinese Long Daoyi/Wang Zongyuan (456.33) ahead of the Britons Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher as well as Jules Bouyer/Alexis Jandard (France). Rüdiger won Olympic bronze in this discipline in 2021 with record European champion Patrick Hausding. After his resignation, high diver Barthel moved up – at the first World Championships there was the only medal for the German water jumpers at the time. The duo might not repeat this success in the Prefectural Pool: After the two mandatory jumps and the first freestyle jump, they had already slipped down to seventh place, and Barthel/Rüdiger fell even further behind with a mistake in the penultimate round.
Twice tenth place
Pauline Pfeif (Berlin) and Alexander Lube (Aachen) in mixed synchronized diving from the tower as well as Jette Müller (Rostock) in the decision from the women’s 1-meter board had previously stayed far away from the podium. The mixed duo scored 256.38 points in five jumps and placed tenth. Top favorite China (339.54) won the title once more ahead of Mexico and Japan. Müller also finished tenth (248.25) in the double victory of the Chinese Lin Shan (318.60) and Li Yajie (306.35).
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