Lukas Märtens won his first medal in his first pool final at the European Swimming Championships in Paris and led the German 4×200 meter freestyle relay team to bronze. The 400-meter Olympic champion achieved a time of 7:02.28 minutes with his teammates Timo Sorgius, Jarno Bäschnitt and Cornelius Jahn. In doing so, they improved the German record from 2009 by almost a second. Only the favored Brits (7:01.52) and French (7:02.23) were slightly faster than the DSV quartet.

In the morning, the Germans, led by an already outstanding starting swimmer Märtens, set the best time in 7:04.83, ahead of Great Britain and Lithuania.

“Of course we have to stay calm because it was a very fast time for a morning. I don’t think everyone has that much left in them. But I think we can all surpass ourselves again today,” Märtens said after the preliminary heat. Even more was possible in the final. Bäschnitt and Jahn in particular showed strong performances that were not expected.

By Editor

One thought on “Swimming: First German pool medal: men’s relay with European Championship bronze”

Leave a Reply