Lukas Martens Breaks Own German Record in 800 Freestyle; Kyle Chalmers Adds Third Victory
It’s been quite a few days at the Swim Open Stockholm for Germany’s Lukas Martens, the reigning Olympic champion in the 400-meter freestyle from the Paris Games last summer.
After setting a world record in the 400 freestyle on the opening day of the meet, Martens followed up with a victory in the 200 freestyle. As the meet wrapped up on Tuesday, Martens delivered a national and meet record in the 800 freestyle, clocking a time of 7:39.10. That performance was less than a second off the pace set by Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen (7:38.19) en route to the Olympic crown and a European record last summer in the French capital.
Martens led a German sweep of the top-four positions, with those finishes spanning an impressive 7:39.10 to 7:46.01, and he had distance ace Florian Wellbrock right on his heels in 7:41.10. Third place went to Oliver Klemet in 7:44.92 while Sven Schwarz was fourth in 7:46.01. Martens’ previous German record sat at 7:39.48, set at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.
Not surprising, Martens pushed the pace from the start, as was his strategy in breaking the world record in the 400 freestyle. At the 200-meter mark, Martens turned in 1:53.42, with Schwarz second in 1:54.34 and Wellbrock in third at 1:54.40. By the midway point of the race, Martens and Wellbrock had separated themselves, Martens splitting 3:51.07 and Wellbrock touching at 400 meters in 3:51.39. At the 600-meter mark, it was Martens at 5:46.98 and Wellbrock in 5:47.36.
But over the final 200 meters, Martens had too much for his countryman and pulled away for a victory of just more than seconds. The effort capped a sensational meet for the German, who undoubtedly will carry significant confidence into this summer’s World Championships in Singapore.
Dominance by Germany in the 800 freestyle was not limited to the men’s race, as Isabel Gose destroyed the field in the women’s version of the event. Gose went 8:24.64 over her 16 laps to snip .03 off the previous meet standard of 8:24.67, set in 2018 by Sarah Kohler. Gose earlier won the 400 freestyle and 1500 freestyle and, like Martens, has built momentum heading into the summer.
Kyle Chalmers Completes a Trifecta; Marrit Steenbergen Rolls
Australian Kyle Chalmers punctuated his week in Stockholm by earning his third win of the competition. Touching the wall in 21.95, Chalmers bested the field in the 50 freestyle and complemented earlier triumphs in the 50 butterfly and 100 freestyle. In his latest victory, Chalmers placed ahead of Poland’s Piotr Ludwiczak (22.14).
As Chalmers prepares for the Australian Trials for the World Championships, which will be held in June, the three-time Olympian has shown fine form and could be headed for a big summer. Before his trifecta in Sweden, Chalmers posted a 47.27 effort in the 100 freestyle at the Bergen Swim Festival. That meet also included a personal best of 21.78 for Chalmers in the 50 freestyle.
In the women’s 100 freestyle, the Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen cruised away from the opposition. Steenbergen posted a swim of 53.44 to place more than a second ahead of runnerup Sofia Astedst (54.46).
Kieran Smith Completes Medley Double
One day after winning the 400 individual medley, American Kieran Smith claimed victory at half the distance. Smith was the sole athlete to break the two-minute barrier in the 200 IM, his time of 1:59.10 more than three seconds faster than the 2:02.70 of Finland’s Ronny Brannkarr. Smith was a half-second up on the field by the end of the opening butterfly leg and continued to add to his margin throughout the race.
Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova produced a swim of 1:07.27 to take top honors in the women’s 100 breaststroke while Germany’s Alina Baievych was the winner of the women’s 200 butterfly in 2:12.43. The 50 breaststroke also featured a Lithuanian champ, as Andrius Sidlauskas won in 27.51, a hundredth faster than the second-place tie between Daniel Kertes and Lucas Matzerath.
- Results
- Lukas Märtens Takes Down 400 Freestyle World Record; Lowers 2009 Super-Suited Standard
- Day 1 report
- Day 2 report
- Day 3 report