Johannes Liebmann Has Breakthrough Swim in 400 Freestyle, #2 Junior All-Time

2025 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 2-7, 2025
• Lublin, Poland
• SCM (25 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Live Recaps:
  • Prelims: Day 1
  • Finals: Day 1

The men’s 400 freestyle saw a very close final that ended with the top four swimmers separated by only a second. German 18-year-old Johannes Liebmann finished 4th in the event, touching in 3:37.29 to become the #2 junior swimmer in history in the event.

MEN’S 400 FREESTYLE – FINAL

• WR: 3:32.25 – Yannick Agnel (FRA), 2012
• WJR: 3:37.92 – Matt Sates (RSA), 2021
• ER: 3:32.25 – Yannick Agnel (FRA), 2012
• EJR: 3:36.57 – Grigorii Vekovishchev (RUS), 2025
• CR: 3:33.20 – Danas Rapsys (LTU), 2019

Top 8 Finishers:

1. Jack McMillan (GBR) – 3:36.33
2. Lukas Maertens (GER) – 3:36.57
3. Dan Wiffen (IRL) – 3:37.02
4. Johannes Liebmann (GER) – 3:37.29 *WJR*
5. Victor Johansson (SWE) – 3:37.92
6. Zalan Sarkany (HUN) – 3:38.03
7. Duncan Scott (GBR) – 3:38.14
8. Krzysztof Chmielewski (POL) – 3:38.58

Liebmann’s 4th place time of 3:37.29 would have been a World Junior Record a month ago, and is technically faster than the current WJR set by Matt Sates back in 2021. At the beginning of November, though, Russia’s Grigorii Vekovishchev swam 3:36.57 to set the European Junior Record at the 2025 Russian SC Championships, but that time hasn’t been ratified by World Aquatics yet.

Liebmann’s swim was a new German Age Record for 18-year-olds, taking nearly six seconds off Sven Schwarz‘s 3:43.01 from October of 2020, making him the first junior swimmer in German history to break 3:40 in the event.

He currently trains at Magdeburg with coach Bernd Berkhahn, one of the top training programs in the world, particularly in the distance freestyle events.

Berkhahn has had exceptional success coaching the best open water swimmers in the world including Sharon van Rouwendaal, Florian Wellbrock, and Moesha Johnson, and he has seen a lot of success with pool swimmers as well.

Men’s 400 freestyle long course World Record holder Lukas Maertens trains with the group, as does newly minted European record holder Isabel Gose. Maertens finished 2nd in the event, coming in at 3:36.57 to touch just two tenths behind champion Jack McMillan.

The German Swimming Federation was recently approved for federal funding to construct a national swimming center in Magdeburg. The cost of the project is estimated to sit around 51 million euros (~$59 million USD) and the federal government is expected to cover 90% of the cost.

Liebmann has seen significant improvement while at the program. In August, he finished 7th in the long course event at the World Junior Championships, touching in 3:49.27, about a second off his lifetime best 3:48.79 from May of this year.

His swim today was almost nine seconds faster than his previous best time of 3:46.03 from November of last year.

Maertens and Liebmann will both move up the all-time German rankings in the event, with their swims coming in at 2nd and 3rd all time, behind Paul Biedermann‘s 3:32.77 from 2009.

Liebmann still has the 800 and 1500 freestyles remaining in his schedule.