Florian Wellbrock summed it up succinctly after his 14:36.25 German 1500m freestyle title and golden ticket to World titles in July:

Distance swimming is putting Germany a little bit back on the world swimming map. That was three of us that swam inside the [Singapore cut] and it's astonishing that Oliver didn't make it with a 14:39. That's something you don't see anywhere else in the world.

Indeed you don't - not domestically - and never worldwide in a calendar year in the same race or multiple races in domestic waters, let alone a single training unit in one city in one country.

The biggest counts of men inside 14:40 on the World rankings in a single year before 2025 and the race in Berlin today:

• 2016: 4 men, 4 performances, 4 nations
• 2019: 3 men, 4 performances, 4 nations - with Wellbrock at the helm as World champion
• 2021: 3 men, 3 performances, 3 nations - with Wellbrock atop the year-end rankings but American Bobby Finke having taken Olympic gold, the German World champion bronze - on his way to Marathon gold the week after
• 2022: 4 men, 5 performances, 4 nations
• 2023: 5 men, 6 performances, 5 nations
• 2024: 3 men, 4 performances, 3 nations

And, so far this year:

• 2025: 3 men, 4 performances, 1 nation, 1 training group

The splits on the result sheet below tell the tale of a three-way, 30-length fight all the way from the plunge to a podium of sub-14:40s, Wellbrock the man who found that extra drop of fuel in his tank for the finishing edge that left him 0.57sec clear of Sven Schwarz, whose 14:36.82 personal best was just over two seconds clear of the third man home to make German nationals the fastest domestic 1500m fight, Oliver Klemet, Olympic Marathon silver-medal winner in Paris last year, on 14:39.03.

Schwarz beat his training partners - Wellbrock and Klemet - at coach Bernd Berkhahn's Magdeburg performance unit in the 800m freestyle this week, in European record time:

Sven Schwarz Sets Euro Record 7:38.12 For German 800 Crown As Berkhahn’s Magdeburg Might Flexes Collective Muscle

No other swim program in the world has ever had four men racing 7:38, 7:39, 7:43 (with a career best 7:39) and 7:44 in one season over 800 free when backed up by two age-record- holding training partners waiting in the wings on 7:51.04 and 7:51.29

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Defeat fed into today's fight in the 1500. Said Wellbrock on the pool deck after battle in Berlin - and worth repeating that part of the quote we ran up top:

"I was a bit shocked in the 800m yesterday. I had the title in my sights but Sven got it ... so,. today it worked out - and that's another German [1500] title. Distance swimming is putting Germany a little bit back on the world swimming map. That was three of us that swam inside the [Singapore cut] and it's astonishing that Oliver didn't make it with a 14:39. That's something you don't see anywhere else in the world."

Wellbrock and Klemet were the very picture (see gallery below) of that sentiment pin the wall at the end of the race when they stared up at the board to soak in an historic.first in domestic waters, one that meant this: a 14:39 does not a ticket to summer in the Singapore 1500m make.

We knew Wellbrock had nerves and stamina of steel, of course, but today reminded us of the fighter, boxer, racer within. Here is the tide he's holding back, like Katie Ledecky in women's distance swimming, two years shy of turning 30:

All-time German sub-14:40 going into the Berlin final:

All-time German sub-14:40 after the Berlin final:

So, early May, Berlin and the curtain-closing session.of German Championships did not disappoint, another wave of qualifiers for World Championships in Singapore come July including two German records, an age standard and several national-high-bar rattling swims.

The men's 1500m was the epic of the day:

ARD Livestream - Last day, with links to all broadcast sessions

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