2025 GERMAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, May 1st – Sunday, May 4th
- Berlin, Germany
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Entries/Results
On the whole, Germany has been swimming lights out as of late, with both the men’s and women’s sides putting up head-turning swims over the last month.
The barrage on records began with Olympic champion Lukas Märtens‘ other-worldly 400m free world record at the Swim Open Stockholm last month, with the 23-year-old’s teammates continuing the momentum at last week’s Berlin Swim Open and Gaether & Friends swim meets.
23-year-old Märtens was in the water again tonight, contesting the final of the men’s 200m freestyle.
After establishing himself as the top-seeded swimmer with a super solid morning outing of 1:45.31, Märtens turned on the jets to fire off a massive 1:44.25 to capture gold tonight.
Splitting 23.96/26.27 (50.23)/27.08/26.94 (54.02), Märtens got the wall nearly 3 seconds ahead of the pack en route to putting up his season-best.
He handily defeated Jarno Bäschnitt who settled for silver in 1:47.10 while Timo Sorgius rounded out the podium in 1:47.29. Last night’s 100m free silver medalist Kaii Winkler produced 1:47.94 to finish 4th overall.
As for Märtens, his effort represents the 2nd-best time of his illustrious career, one which boasts a lifetime best of 1:44.14 from this time last year.
Lukas Märtens‘ Top 5 LCM 200 Freestyle Performances
- 1:44.14, 2024
- 1:44.25, 2025
- 1:44.79, 2023
- 1:44.89, 2024
- 1:45.21, 2024
His outing is par for the course for this Olympic champion, following up the aforementioned 400m free world record as well as an impressive 7:39.10 800m free from last week.
Märtens now ranks #1 in the world this season in the 200m free, owning the sole sub-1:45 outing.
2024-2025 LCM Men 200 Free
Märtens
1:44.25
| 2 | Hwang Sunwoo | KOR | 1:45.03 | 10/15 |
| 3 | David POPOVICI | ROU | 1:45.07 | 04/10 |
| 4 | James GUY | GBR | 1:45.08 | 04/20 |
| 4 | Duncan SCOTT | GBR | 1:45.08 | 04/20 |
The men’s 50m back saw Ole Braunschweig top the podium in a mark of 24.83 as one of two performers to clear the 25-second barrier.
Joining him was Vincent Passek who touched in 24.93 followed by Alexander Bauch who bagged bronze in 25.45.
Braunschweig’s lifetime best remains at the 24.57 put up at last year’s Berlin Swim Open.
On-fire women’s breaststroker Anna Elendt took on the 50m sprint this evening, turning in a time of 30.48 to get the job done for gold.
The former Texas Longhorn dominated the field, getting to the wall over a second ahead of her competitors en route to establishing the 8th-best performance of her career.
Lilly-Fay Wallbaum snagged silver in 31.77 and Lena Ludwig also landed on the podium in 31.86, good enough for bronze.
Elendt now inserts herself into slot #5 on the worldwide rankings list for the season. This is after she already nailed a new German national record in the 200m breast (2:23.93) last week and blasted a time of 1:05.72 in the 100m breast here.
Additional Notes
- Noelle Benkler was the top women’s 200m IM performer, logging a winning result of 2:13.80. The German Swimming Federation has set the World Championshps qualification standard at 2:11.40.
- The women’s 200m fly saw Leni von Bonin turn in a time of 2:13.15 to just out-touch Alina Baievych who settled for silver only .08 behind in 2:13.13. Yara Fay Riefstahl nabbed 3rd place in 2:14.34. The women were chasing a QT of 2:09.40 for Singapore.
- Louis Schubert represented the sole men’s 200m fly competitor to dip under the 2:00 barrier. He notched 1:58.44, just off his PB of 1:58.26 from last year.
- National record holder Melvin Imoudu topped the men’s 50m breast podium in 27.14 ahead of Lucas Matzerath‘s effort of 27.18. Felix Berling was also sub-28 in 27.95. Imoudu’s result overtook his previous season-best of 27.31 established at February’s Luxembourg Euro Meet. He is now the 14th-best performer worldwide.
- The women’s 200m free saw Nina Holt stop the clock at 1:58.33 to grab the gold. That represented a new career-quickest performance, surpassing her previous PB of 1:59.71 notched just last month at the Swim Open Stockholm. Holt has been on a tear, registering a big-time personal best of 53.81 in the 100m free at last week’s Gaether & Friends Swim Meet. Tonight, Maya Werner nabbed silver in 1:58.81, her first time ever under 1:59 and Zara Selimovic secured bronze in 2:01.65. Werner, too, has been making waves, producing a mighty 4:06.04 400m free PB last night to qualify for Singapore.
German World Championships qualifiers
* Qualified at these German Championships
| Qualified | Women | Event | Men | Qualified |
| 24.80 | 50m Free | 22.00 | ||
| Nina Holt, 53.81 | 54.20 | 100m Free | 48.20 | Josha Salchow, 48.02* |
| 1:57.10 | 200m Free | 1:46.30 | Lukas Märtens, 1:44.25* | |
| Isabel Gose, 4:03.65*Maya Werner, 4:06.04* | 4:08.70 | 400m Free | 3:47.00 | Lukas Märtens, 3:39.96
Oliver Klemet, 3:43.30 |
| Isabel Gose, 8:24.64 | 8:31.80 | 800m Free | 7:47.10 | Sven Schwarz, 7:38.12Lukas Märtens, 7:39.10
Florian Wellbrock, 7:41.10 Oliver Klemet, 7:44.92 |
| Isabel Gose, 15:52.34* | 16:15.80 | 1500m Free | 14:57.50 | Florian Wellbrock, 14:38.27Oliver Klemet, 14:43.01
Sven Schwarz, 14:52.62 Johannes Liebmann, 14:57.00 |
| Angelina Köhler, 56.33 | 58.00 | 100m Fly | 51.60 | Luca Armbruster, 51.21*
Josha Salchow, 51.28* |
| 2:09.40 | 200m Fly | 1:55.70 | ||
| 59.90 | 100m Back | 53.50 | ||
| Lise Seidel, 2:10.76 | 2:11.50 | 200m Back | 1:57.60 | |
| Anna Elendt, 1:05.72* | 1:06.80 | 100m Breast | 59.70 | Melvin Imoudu, 59.11Lucas Matzerath, 59.19 |
| 2:25.60 | 200m Breast | 2:10.60 | ||
| 2:11.40 | 200m IM | 1:58.10 | ||
| 4:41.90 | 400m IM | 4:15.50 | Cedric Büssing, 4:13.56* | |
| 3:39.79 | 4x100m Free | 3:15.40 | ||
| 7:57.50 | 4x200m Free | 7:09.95 | 7:08.34 – Lukas Märtens, 1:45.55; Rafael Miroslaw, 1:47.48; Timo Sorgius, 1:47.52; Philipp Peschke, 1:47.69 | |
| 3:56.85 – Lise Seidel, 1:00.74; Anna Elendt, 1:05.97; Angelina Köhler, 56.93; Nina Holt, 53.81 | 4:01.37 | 4x100m Medley | 3:35.33 | 3:35.18 – Lukas Märtens, 54.18; Melvin Imoudu, 1:00.32; Luca Armbruster, 52.38; Josha Salchow, 48.30 |
| 3:44.64 – Lukas Märtens, 54.18; Melvin Imoudu, 1:00.32, Angelina Köhler, 56.93; Nina Holt, 53.81 | 3:46.70 | 4x100m Mixed Medley | 3:46.70 | 3:44.64 – Lukas Märtens, 54.18; Melvin Imoudu, 1:00.32, Angelina Köhler, 56.93; Nina Holt, 53.81 |
| 3:26.11 – Nina Holt, 53.81; Nele Schulze, 55.56, Josha Salchow, 48.30; Rafael Miroslaw, 48.44 | 3:28.42 | 4x100m Mixed Free | 3:28.42 | 3:26.11 – Nina Holt, 53.81; Nele Schulze, 55.56, Josha Salchow, 48.30; Rafael Miroslaw, 48.44 |
Looking at the other results, I wonder whether young Alina Baievych’s move to Magdeburg was a good idea. She’s at age, where she should still be improving from meet to meet not going 3 seconds slower than last summer.
Does anyone have any insight there? Is she under the weather maybe?
US mens 100 back is so dead.
Say it with me now:
👏 G 👏
👏 O 👏
👏 A 👏
👏 T 👏
Possibly a slight overreaction..
Maybe right now, but he must be the most consistent mid D freestyler of all time? Multiple 1:44 lows, 3:39-3:41s, and 7:39s!
And with the rest of the summer still to unfold!
He swims slower during the summer. As most germabs
Thorpe went 3:40 five times, and swam multiple 1:44s too, and his best 200 time is still better than Martens. And the 800 he swam it two times, one of them a 7:39.1. I think Thorpe wins when it comes to consistency, at least for now
A decent chance of an all sub 1:44 podium at worlds this year
I only see Märtens and Popovici realistic
If you only see Märtens and Popovici in the 1.44 range then surely there is a decent chance of a 1.44 podium considering Sunwoo/Guy/Scott have all gone 1.45.0 domestically, throw a World Champion carrot in front of them all and I think it’s very possible.
Hobson has the best chance to join them imo
Nah. Martens swims slower during the summer. I only see popovici, and hobson will be stuck at 1.44 high for a while
Don’t sleep on Hobson.
Not a chance.
Pan…..
His 200’s overrated
Lowkey even though it’s a suited swim I think that 1:42 flat by Biedermann is atleast a 1:43 mid in a normal suit. Martens is now better than Biedermann in 400 but still an entire universe away from him in 200. That being said Martens is a gold medal contender in 200. Will be cool to see the 100/200 guys vs Martens in this race
He’s better than a Biedermann minus a supersuit in both events.
Nope biederman was a 1.44 high. Never a 1.43
After his prime years…
1:43 mid in a “normal suit” today probably, but I doubt he could have gone that in a textile suit back in 2009.
Guys I’m new to swimming, has Lukas always been this elite? This guy just continues to post awesome times recently
He’s been very elite for a while with stable improvements through the years that has resulted in this level of swimming.
I think he used to be one of those guys who would put up fast times randomly in-season, but wasn’t able to replicate as fast during the big moments (but still did very well).
That’s quite the way to describe a reigning Olympic champion. Or perhaps there’s a bigger moment in swimming?