Germany’s Lukas Märtens Rocks 3:40.61 400 Free World Record Follow-up

2025 GERMAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Day two of the 2025 German Swimming Championships unfolded tonight in Berlin with World Championships bids on the line.

As a refresher, this competition marks an additional qualification opportunity for athletes to add their names to the nation’s roster for Singapore, although German athletes were able to qualify at any World Aquatics-approved competition from April 7th through May 4th.

23-year-old Lukas Märtens has already made the grade in multiple events, highlighted by the men’s 400m freestyle, the race in which he ripped a new World Record earlier this month.

At the Swim Open Stockholm on April 13th, Märtens overtook the longstanding 400m free WR benchmark of 3:40.07 retired countryman Paul Biedermann put on the books during the supersuited 2009 World Championships.

Märtens’ effort rendered him the first-ever man under the 3:40 barrier, surpassing his previous lifetime best of 3:40.33 notched at the 2024 German Nationals.

While Märtens bypassed the 400m free event at last week’s Berlin Swim Open, he was back at it tonight and put up another head-turning performance of 3:40.61 to grab the gold.

The reigning Olympic champion led 23-year-old Oliver Klemet who clocked 3:43.43 for silver, followed by Olympic champion and open water ace Florian Wellbrock.

Wellbrock touched in 3:46.44 while 18-year-old Johannes Liebmann followed up his 1500m free German Age Record from last weekend with a solid 3:48.79 as the 4th place finisher.

Splits for top 4 finishers:

Klemet was just off his season-best of 3:43.30 to retain his position as the 2nd German Worlds qualifier.

As for Märtens, his 3:40.61 effort this evening represents the 10th-best performance in history and he now owns 3 of the swiftest swims ever produced. It also beat his Olympic gold medal-winning result of 3:41.78 from Paris.

Top 10 Men’s LCM 400 Free Performances All-Time

  1. 3:39.96 – Lukas Märtens (GER), 2025
  2. 3:40.07 – Paul Biedermann (GER), 2009
  3. 3:40.08 – Ian Thorpe (AUS), 2002
  4. 3:40.14 – Sun Yang (CHN), 2012
  5. 3:40.17 – Ian Thorpe, 2001
  6. 3:40.29 – Sun Yang, 2011
  7. 3:40.33 – Lukas Märtens, 2024
  8. 3:40.54 – Ian Thorpe, 2002
  9. 3:40.59 – Ian Thorpe, 2000
  10. 3:40.61 – Lukas Märtens, 2025

 

In This Story

7
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Coach
1 hour ago

Oliver Klemet is severely underrated. 3:42, 7:44, 14:43 in the pool and Paris silver medalist on 10km. And btw he’s 5’8. #5’8ahhforthewin

3:41.83 in a brief
Reply to  Coach
1 hour ago

He may be the smallest on the podium but he’s the biggest in our hearts ❤️ #5’8ahhforthewin

Casey
3 hours ago

No one is mentioning Klemet’s .55 reaction. Dude should become a sprinter

Cassandra
Reply to  Casey
2 hours ago

theres a glut of elite german distance swimmers who keep missing international teams — they should move down some events and target the 200 like martens. could be a very dangerous 4 x 200 with martens as the pointy end if they could find 2 more legs. their lack of depth also forces them into wasting martens on their prelims lineup

3:41.83 in a brief
Reply to  Casey
1 hour ago

Since he is 5’8 ahh he’s able to spring off the blocks faster than Lukas “GOAT of 400” Martens

holy moly
3 hours ago

holy moly

PFA
3 hours ago

Well this is consistency I am satisfied with seeing from Lukas

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

Read More »