Imoudu To Be German Olympic Pioneer With Win In Berlin; 800 Tickets To Schwarz & Klemet, Wellbrock Out
Melvin Imoudu will head to Paris an Olympic pioneer for Germany after clocking the second best of his career in 59.15 to claim the national 100m breaststroke title in Berlin today.
The Potsdamer SV ace coached by 1991 World 1500m freestyle champion Jörg Hoffmann, was out in 27.72 and confirmed his place as second German inside the 59.49sec cut for the Paris Games. Imoudu, whose mother is German and father Nigerian, clocked 59.07 in 100m heats and set a national dash mark of 26.74 in Eindhoven a couple of weeks ago.
Lukas Matzerath, national champion on 59.12 with Imoudu a touch away last year, bypassed the race: he qualified when he went on to become the second German swimmer after retired Fabian Schwingenschlogl to break the 59sec mark when he set the national record of 58.74 in the heats the Fukuoka 2023 World titles.
Matzerath was 0.01sec slower in semis and then finished fifth in the final on 58.88, 0.16sec shy of an historic three-way bronze.
Imoudu, who races for Potsdamer SV and attended the Potsdam sports school in his youth, has now confirmed his place in Paris with Matzerath, who bypassed the race in Berlin. Imoudu’s breakthrough came last year when he pipped Matzerath, the 2022 European championships bronze medallist, for the German dash title in 2023.
If Melvin’s Nigerian roots make him a pioneer on the German Olympic swimming team, his swim today kept up a family tradition of excellence in sport: Melvin’s older sister Denise played volleyball for Germany until retiring in 2022. Their father Marcus Imoudu hails from Nigeria, and met their mother Bettina when he studied in the GDR on his way to becoming an engineer and project manager at a steel construction company. The family home is in Schwedt.
Behind Imoudu today was US-based Noel de Geus, racing for Eintracht Hildesheim, on a massive PB of 59.98, a year after a 1:01.91 career high at nationals. Maximilian Pilger, SG Essen, completed the podium in 1:00.30.
Imoudu was asked this week about the go-free 23 Chinese positives crisis and told German media:
“This is of course a complete breach of trust. It’s completely incomprehensible to me why no action was taken. We are always told: be careful what you eat. Watch what you eat. Always make sure that there can be nothing in there – because even if you are not to blame for what is in there, you will first be blocked and an investigation will be carried out. And then it’s just thrown under the table. As long as there’s no clarification, these athletes should be banned first, as harsh as that sounds.”
Melvin Imoudu
Wellbrock Wins But Paris Tickets To Schwarz & Klemet
In other finals, Florian Wellbrock, the SC Magdeburg ace who has already booked his ticket to Paris in open water and the 1500m with silver at Doha 2024 World titles, confirmed good form with a 7:50.82 victory in the 800m freestyle ahead of Oliver Klemet, SG Frankfurt, 7:51.92. Solid practice for the marathon from Wellbrock but no ticket to Paris: Klemet clocked 7:46.03 earlier in the qualification window and that takes the second ticket for Paris alongside Sven Schwarz, who finished fourth in 7:44.29 at the Doha World titles in February when the title went to Ireland’s Dan Wiffen.
The podium was completed by Wellbrock’s clubmate Arne Schubert, 17, on 7:53.92, while another from coach Bernd Berkhahn‘s growing shoal of distance fighters, Johannes Liebmann, 16, was fourth in 8:01.15.
Training Partners Gose & Johnson Top The 1500 Free
Their Magdeburg teammate Isabel Gose, already on the team for Paris courtesy of medals at Doha World titles in times inside target, limbered up for a shot at the Paris podium in the 1500m freestyle with a solid 15:52.02 (4:12.01, 8:25.67) victory today ahead of training partner Moesha Johnson, 16:05.51, and the sister of star of day 1 Lukas Märtens, Leonie Märtens, on 16:12.48.
Salchow On The Plane To Paris
Depending on whether Germany selects a 4x100m free team, Lukas booked another swim in Paris with a third place finish in the 100m freestyle final win by Josha Salchow, racing for SV Nikar Heidelberg and coached by Craig Stewart in Adelaide, Australia.
Salchow was out in 23.17, home in 48.33 seven days after cracking the 48sec mark for the first time in his career in the same pool at the Berlin Open, for an Olympic qualifier (see story below).
The podium was completed by Peter Varjasi, TB 1888 Erlangen, 48.57, Märtens third in
48.86, with Luca Nik Armbruster, SG Neukölln e.V. Berlin, on 49.05, Ole Mats Eidam, Potsdamer SV, 49.19, and 18-year-old Martin Wrede on a German age record of 49.45.
There have been much faster times in the German ranks of the 100m freestyle but Nina Holt, SG Mönchengladbach, is the national champion in 2024 on 54.46, ahead of Nele Schulze, 54.60, and Julia Mrozinski, 54.88, with Nina Sandrine Jazy fourth in 55.16.
A reminder – April 19:
Salchow, Adelaide Training Mate Of Chalmers, On 47.85 German Record At Berlin Open
Josha Salchow, the Heidelberg sprinter who trains in Australia, announced on the eve of the Berlin Open that he wanted to break the German 100m free record and make the cut foe the Paris Olympics. Job done: 47.85 on the opening day of action at the Europasportpark in the German capital, include the national record of 47.92 and well inside the 48.34 cut for Games.
Out in 23.11, home in 24.74! That got inside the German record set by Rafael Miroslaw at the same Berlin Open back in 2022. Salchow, 24 and a business student and German Army sponsored trainee, had had a best time of 48.38, from the Japan Open last year. With his new career high, he moved from 6th all-time to the top of the German rankings by leapfrogging Damien Wierling, Paul Biedermann, Steffen Deibler, Marco di Carli and Miroslaw and all their bests, each of their times set in textile suits since 2011.
A business student and Germany Army trainee, Salchow is based at the high performance centre in Adelaide and trains alongside 2016 Olympic 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers and Australia’s 100 ‘fly record holder Matt Temple under the guidance of Craig Stewart.
Watch the Speed Of Salchow and the rest of battles on Day 1
You Tube Of The Meet can be found here
Salchow trains at a program that has found itself at the heart of controversy Down Under of late. Stewart has been head coach at the Adelaide program since Peter Bishop was stripped of his regular c coaching duties by the South Australian Sports Institute, which opened an investigation into matters no one appears to wish to talk about.
What happened next rules out a whole list of serious misdemeanours: they gave coach Bishop a job in youth development. In a statement last month, the national federation noted: “Swimming Australia has been informed of a recent investigation and findings by the South Australia Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing into South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) high performance swimming program.”
Speculation about Bishop suggested that he may have broken team protocol on national team trips in 2023, while a senior source close to Swimming Australia indicated to SOS that there had been a falling out between Bishop and his top sprint charges. None ion the parties involved, including Swimming Australia, have commented on what underpins the decisions made on Bishop.
At NSW titles in Sydney in March, Salchow clocked 48.79 in the 100m free behind William Yang’s 48.48 and Chalmers, on 48.53. On the Bishop circumstances, Chalmers emerged to tell SOS and the other media at the Olympic pool in Sydney:
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll think much of it until after the Olympic Games. For me it’s getting on with the job. It’s too close for me to use my energy where it’s not needed at the moment, so I need to just focus on what I’m doing and what Peter has prepared me for until this point. We’ve been through some massive highs and lows together and I’ve been able to overcome so many challenges in the past.”
More from Berlin shortly…