Olympic champion Lukas Märtens is happy to take his favorite role at the swimming world championships (July 11th to August 3) in Singapore.
“I like to be the hunted,” said 23 -year -old Magdeburger in the interview of the “Augsburg Allgemeine”. In mid -April, Märtens was the first person to swim 400 meters of freestyle under 3:40 minutes and had improved Paul Biedermann’s almost 16 -year -old world record by eleven hundredths in 39.96 minutes.
In the title fights in Singapore, Märtens pay off good chances of precious metal. The gold medalist from Paris is still missing a World Cup title.
“It would be unbelievable to say that I only want to come to the final. I want to swim a similar time as in Stockholm again, then you can definitely talk about a medal,” said the top athlete confidently. “I just have to concentrate on myself to call up what I can.”
The world record of Stockholm has an enormous status for the Magdeburger.
“Nothing will top the Olympic victory – unless there is another one. The world record comes right behind it,” said Märtens. “All the World Cup or EM medals are all good and have all accompanied and encouraged me in this way.”