Vice world champion Lukas Märtens clearly missed the first medal for the German swimmers at the European Championships in Rome with the 4×200 m freestyle relay.
The 20-year-old finished seventh with Poul Zellmann, Henning Mühlleitner and Timo Sorgius in 7:13.58 minutes.
Around six and a half seconds were missing for bronze. Gold went to Hungary (7:05.38) ahead of Italy (7:06.25) and France (7:06.97).
The young women’s quartet with Julia Mrozinski, Zoe Vogelmann, Chiara Klein and Isabel Gose finished fifth in 7:59.89 minutes.
Lucas Matzerath, who was sixth at the World Championships, entered the final in seventh place over 100 m breaststroke, while Sonnele Öztürk, in 15th place, clearly missed the final over 200 m backstroke.