Isabel Gose won her first World Championship gold on the short course in Budapest. After silver in the 800 meter freestyle on Wednesday, the 22-year-old confidently won the 1500 m distance in 15:24.69 minutes on Friday, giving the German Swimming Association (DSV) its first triumph and its third medal overall in Hungary.
The Magdeburg native came third on the long track at the Olympic Games in Paris and at the World Championships in Doha this year. Now the big performance in the Duna Arena followed. “I want confirmation of what I achieved in the summer,” Gose explained before leaving for Hungary. She achieved this in an impressive way. Her long-term rival, long course world champion Simona Quadarella from Italy (15:30.14), had to settle for silver, around five and a half seconds behind. In the absence of Katie Ledecky (USA), bronze went to the American Jillian Cox (15:41.29).
The men missed out on another medal in the 4×200 freestyle relay. The quartet of Rafael Miroslaw, Kaii Winkler, Timo Sorgius and Florian Wellbrock swam past third place by almost three seconds in 6:50.43 minutes. The USA won ahead of Australia. On Tuesday, Wellbrock (Magdeburg) won the first German medal in Budapest. The open water Olympic champion in Tokyo swam to silver in the 1500 m freestyle on the first day of competition. Lukas Märtens, 22, gold medalist in Paris in the 400 meter freestyle, is not competing in Budapest.
