Lukas Märtens won the silver medal in the 400 meter freestyle at the swimming world championships in Budapest on Saturday (June 18th, 2022). Synchronized swimmer Marlene Bojer had previously achieved the greatest success of her career so far.
Lukas Märtens clocked in a time of 3:42.85 minutes on Saturday and was only beaten by winner Elijah Winnington from Australia. Brazilian Guilherme Costa won bronze. For the 20-year-old, it was by far the greatest success of his career so far and a strong start to the World Championships for the German Swimming Association. On the very first day of competition in the Duna Arena, the DSV was able to celebrate a medal.
The Magdeburg teammate of Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock, with whom he swims in the strong training group of long-distance national coach Bernd Berkhahn, had already drawn attention to himself earlier this year. Märtens had traveled to the Hungarian capital as the world’s best of the year over 400, 800 and 1500 meters.
Synchronized swimmer Bojer is eleventh
The first gold medal of the title fights had already gone to the Japanese Yukiko Inui, who clearly distanced the competition in the absence of the otherwise dominant Russians. The Russian and Belarusian federations are suspended because of the invasion of Ukraine. Synchronized swimmer Marlene Bojer came eleventh in this competition.
“It’s incredible”
“It’s unbelievable. In my fifth World Championships I get the best result and with a personal best too“, said the woman from Munich, overwhelmed. She managed to score 81.4450 points, more than ever before in the technical freestyle. Five specified elements have to be performed in a certain order, the music can be freely chosen.
Bojer had clearly improved again in the final. “In the prelim, I didn’t do the last two elements so cleanly. I’m very happy that I managed to do it“, she said.
Also with Michelle Zimmer in the final
On Sunday she will be in a duet with Michelle Zimmer in the final of the technical freestyle. “Of course you speculated a bit from home and dreamed of making it to the final both times.”said Bojer: “It’s a huge success.” In addition, Bojer competes in solo and duet in the free program.