Christian Gessner

Christian Gessner (born June 16, 1968 in Gera ) is a German swimmer and Olympic participant. The 1.92 m tall and 84 kg heavy athlete started for the SC Turbine Erfurt and the TSV Erfurt .

successes

Gessner was able to place himself in championships several times:

200 m layers
- GDR : 3rd place in 1985, 3rd place in 1987 , runner-up in 1988 , 3rd place in 1989 , runner-up in 1990
- Federal Republic of Germany : 1990 and 1991 each runner-up, 1992 MEISTER
400 m layers
- GDR: 3rd place in 1986 , runner-up in 1987 , 1988 , 1989 and 1990 respectively
- Federal Republic of Germany: 1990 , 1991 and 1992 each runner-up.

His year of success was 1991.

At the World Championships in January in Perth , he won the 200 m medley in 2: 02.36 minutes.Bronze behind the Hungarian Tamás Darnyi (gold in the world record time of 1: 59.36 minutes) and the American Eric Namesnik (silver in 2 : 01.87 min.)
At the European Championships , which took place in Athens in the same year , he won two individual medals:
- Silver over 200 m medley in 2: 02.66 min. Just behind the Dane Lars Sörensen (gold in 2: 02.63 min.) And in front of the Italian Luca Sacchi (bronze in 2: 02.93 min.)
- Bronze over 400 m medley in 4: 19.16 minutes behind Luca Sacchi (gold in 4: 17.81 minutes) and his compatriot Patrick Kühl (silver in 4: 17.85 minutes)

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona , he was clearly improved compared to 1991. Nevertheless, it was only enough for two fifth places:

over 200 m positions in 2: 01.97 minutes. For a medal he would have had to swim under 2:01 minutes; Olympic champion was Tamás Darnyi in 2: 00.76 min.
over 400 m medley in 4: 17.88 minutes. He was a good 1.5 seconds away from a medal; Tamás Darnyi won his second gold in the Olympic record time of 2: 14.23 minutes.