2024 GERMAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (OLYMPIC TRIALS)
- Thursday, April 25th – Sunday, April 28th
- Berlin, Germany
- LCM (50m)
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After his monstrous time of 1:44.89 in the heat of the men’s 200m freestyle at these 2024 German Championships, all eyes were on 22-year-old Lukas Maertens to see what he would produce in tonight’s final.
The 2024 World Championships finalist did not disappoint, blasting a big lifetime best of 1:44.14 en route to claiming the gold.
As he did in the morning, Maertens put an insurmountable distance between himself and the field, with the next-closest finisher represented by Danny Schmidt who touched over 4 seconds later in 1:48.61. Rounding out the podium was Philipp Peschke who bagged bronze in 1:49.00.
In tonight’s stellar outing, Maertens opened in a blistering 50.71 and brought it home in 53.43 to put up the fastest time of his career.
🇩🇪German Olympic Trials
男子200Fr
ルーカス・マルテンス 1:44.14Lukas Märtensが0.65秒PB更新して、今季世界ランキング1位の素晴らしい記録！
世界水泳福岡＆ドーハで🥇相当の傑出したタイムで世界歴代7位！
現役でこの記録を上回るのは1:42.97を持つ🇷🇴David Popoviciのみ https://t.co/jTAdjHS2pJ pic.twitter.com/ToRIjN6unr— 競泳NEWS (@swimcoverage) April 27, 2024
Entering these championships his lifetime best rested at the 1:44.79, a time registered as lead-off on the German men’s 4x200m free which placed 7th at the 2023 World Championships.
Prior to tonight’s swim, Maertens had already sealed his spot on the German Olympic roster in this 200m free event, courtesy of the 1:45.33 he produced for 4th place at this year’s World Championships in Doha.
| Maertens’ 1:44.14 PB | Maertens’ 1:44.89 Heats Swim | Maertens’ 1:44.79 Previous PB |
| 50.71 | 50.85 | 50.90 |
| 53.43 | 54.04 | 53.89 |
Maertens’ effort checks the German in as the 7th-quickest men’s 200m free performer in history and ranks him #1 in the world this season, bumping 20-year-old South Korean World Championships gold medalist Hwang Sunwoo.
Top 10 Men’s LCM 200 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Paul Biedermann (GER) – 1:42.00, 2009
- Michael Phelps (USA) – 1:42.96, 2008
- David Popovici (ROU) – 1:42.97, 2022
- Yannick Agnel (FRA) – 1:43.14, 2012
- Danila Izotov (RUS) – 1:43.90, 2009
- Ian Thorpe (AUS) – 1:44.06, 2001
- Lukas Maertens (GER) – 1:44.14, 2024
- Tom Dean (GBR) – 1:44.22, 2021
- Duncan Scott (GBR) – 1:44.26, 2021
- Matt Richards (GBR) – 1:44.30, 2023
2023-2024 LCM Men 200 Free
POPOVICI
1:43.13
| 2 | Lukas MÄRTENS | GER | 1:44.14 | 04/27 |
| 3 | Sunwoo HWANG | KOR | 1:44.40 | 09/27 |
| 4 | Matthew RICHARDS | GBR | 1:44.69 | 04/07 |
| 5 | Duncan SCOTT | GBR | 1:44.75 | 04/07 |
This is the 2nd head-turning performance Maertens has turned in at these championships. He posted a time of 3:40.33 400m free on night one. That performance rendered Maertens the 4th-best performer in history, sitting just .26 away from retired Paul Bidermann‘s seemingly untouchable world record of 3:40.07 that’s been on the books since 2009.
Martens 1:56.00! in 200m back (personal best)
Could he be a 200 & 400 Olympic champ? Don’t count it out.
Literally*no one* counts it out
Dang Freestyle events are loaded in every distance! What a exciting time to be a fan..
Also this would have been 1:43 with competition
Germany is not very deep
a long qualification period window didn’t cater to a competitive german nats meet, many fast swimmers elected to shoot their Olympic shot at other meets (which were more competitive)
People’d better not whittle down the lineup of the 200 final hopefuls.
The podium shortlist could collect candidates as follows at moment (not in a ranking order):
Märtens, Richards, Hwang, Scott, Pan, Popovici
No one above-mentioned is really swimming out of the crowd at present.
A final win is expected to be a marginal rather than a clear-cut one.
Current prediction in the 200 Free
1. Popovici
2. Richards
3. Martens
Any of these three can plausibly win and there’s also Hwang and even Pan (if he figures out the pacing) in the mix for the medals. Martens is the World #1 in this event but the pacing in this race might be the hardest to manage and so I’m pricing in experience quite a bit.
So basically he was in the same form Thorpe was in, in 2002 Comm Games – pretty impressive
Thorpe was so ahead of his time. He was a joy to watch. It was like poetry.
I can’t forget his 2001 World Championship.
100 free 4th
200 free 🏅 WR
400 free 🏅 WR
800 free 🏅WR
4×100 free 🏅 CR (he split 47.87)
4×200 free 🏅 WR (he split 1:44.14)
4×100 Medley CR (he split 47.97)
That Fukuoka World Championship cemented Thorpe as the greatest male freestyler ever.
100 Free was impressive for a middle distance swimmer but not in the overall picture. Matt Biondi in the 80-s multiple times split 47.smth in relays. About 200-800 esp 400 I agree Thorpe was way ahead of his time.
I’d say he is without a doubt the greatest middle distance freestyler ever. But difficult to compare him with sprinters or long distance swimmers. Is he really better than van den Hoogenband, Biondi or Salnikov for example? They were also way ahead of their time in their specialities.
Relay team will be very average.