Germany’s Lukas Martens Blasts 3:41.60 Marker in 400 Freestyle at Stockholm Open
Flash back to last summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. One of the best moments of the competition was Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui celebrating a stunning gold medal from Lane Eight in the 400-meter freestyle. The race was won in 3:43.36, a relatively pedestrian time for such a big stage, but all that was necessary to make Hafnaoui a legend in his homeland.
On Saturday night at the Stockholm Open in Sweden, Germany’s Lukas Martens showed how much faster the event can be when he won the 400 free in 3:41.60, which handed him a decisive victory over Austria’s Felix Aubock (3:44.26) and Germany’s Florian Wellbrock (3:46.14). The effort was easily a career best for Martens.
Martens didn’t advance to the final of the 400 freestyle in Tokyo, as his preliminary swim of 3:46.30 was only good for 12th place. Obviously, the 20-year-old has been putting in work, which was evident in the way he produced his 3:41 showstopper. Martens went out in 53.92 and came through the midway point of the race in 1:50.52. The German split 55.71 for the third 100 and closed with a last-100 split of 55.37. Immediately, Martens becomes a medal contender at June’s World Championships in Budapest.
Closing out the session, Sarah Sjostrom put together a performance of 25.05 to beat the field soundly in the 50 butterfly. The world-record holder in the event, Sjostrom finished .98 up on Denmark’s Emilie Beckmann. This week will provide a gauge to Sjostrom’s training on the way to the World Championships. In her last major competition, she was the silver medalist in the 50 freestyle at the Olympics.
In the opening event, Erik Persson got the best of Finland’s Matti Mattsson in the 200 breaststroke. Persson clocked a mark of 2:09.16, which was more than a second faster than the 2:10.27 of Mattsson, who was the Olympic bronze medalist in the event in Tokyo.
Germany’s Isabel Gose picked up a triumph in the 200 freestyle as her time of 1:57.47 provided a comfortable cushion over Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko (1:58.62), a multi-event standout who has shined in the International Swimming League. Louise Hansson was the winner of the women’s 50 backstroke in 28.32 and Greece’s Apostolos Christou bested the field in the men’s 200 backstroke in 1:57.99. Sarah Wellbrock (nee Kohler) stood on the top of the podium after prevailing in the 1500 freestyle in 16:21.90.
Finally some life in German swimming again 🙂 Maybe ARD and ZDF will show some interest in swimming again, one can only hope.