By Agencies
SINGAPORE: Germany鈥檚 Florian Wellbrock won the men鈥檚 open water 10km at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Wednesday, after the race had been postponed for several hours because of poor water quality.
Wellbrock, the gold medallist at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, won his third open water world title in a time of 1hr 59min 55.50sec at the Sentosa Island course when the race eventually began at 1:00 pm (0500 GMT).
鈥淚t was really tough today. I think it was the warmest waters that we鈥檝e had to race in,鈥 said the 27-year-old Wellbrock of the sea temperature, which was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).
鈥淚 had one year to prepare for this. We did a lot of heat training and I think that was the key today to me taking the gold.鈥
Italy鈥檚 Gregorio Paltrinieri, a six-time world champion across pool and open water disciplines, finished 3.7 seconds behind Wellbrock to claim silver, marking his 17th career world championship medal.
鈥淚 knew Greg (Paltrinieri) was on my feet all the time