World Championships, Day 1 Men’s Prelims: Sam Short, Lukas Martens Set Up 400 Free Title Clash
The first final of the World Championships is expected to feature a heavyweight showdown in the men’s 400 freestyle. The last two world champions in the event, Australia’s Sam Short and Korea’s Kim Woo-min, will race alongside Olympic champion and world-record holder Lukas Martens to open the first medal session in Singapore.
The men’s action on day one also included the 50 butterfly, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay.
Men’s 400 Freestyle
Two years ago at the World Championships, Australia’s Sam Short put on a show in the 400 freestyle, winning the world title in 3:40.68 and coming within two-thirds of a second of a world record that had stood for 14 years. He went on to win silver in the 800 free and bronze in the 1500 free at that meet. However, Short has largely struggled since; he fell to fourth place in the event at the Olympics, missing the podium by 14-hundredths.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Lukas Martens has since emerged as the world’s dominant 400 freestyler. Martens won Olympic gold last year in Paris, and earlier this year, he finally knocked the legendary world record of Paul Biedermann from the books. Martens clocked 3:39.96, clipping the 3:40.07 that had stood since the supersuit era. But Short has responded in fine form since then, going 3:41.09 at Australian Trials in June, and the two will face off for the world title Sunday evening.
Short dominated heat four in prelims, coming within a second of world-record pace for much of the race before pulling off the pace down the stretch. He finished in 3:42.07, a second off his time from June but a half-second quicker than he went in the Olympic final. Martens followed that up by winning his heat comfortably in 3:43.81.
There was a gap behind the two top seeds, but the rest of the field was fairly tightly packed. Korea’s Kim Woo-min qualified third in 3:44.99 as he seeks to repeat the gold medal he won at last February’s Worlds in Doha. Fourth went to Bulgaria’s Petar Mitsin, who went 3:45.01 before the seeded heats. It took a time under 3:46 to reach the final as China’s Zhang Zhanshuo (3:45.26), Sweden’s Victor Johansson (3:45.72), Germany’s Oliver Klemet (3:45.72) and, Italy’s Marco de Tullio (3:45.88) reached the final.
The swimmers that missed the final included Australia’s Elijah Winnington, the 2022 world champion and last year’s Olympic winner, and the United States’ Rex Maurer. Winnington clocked 3:46.37 for 10th place while Maurer, whose time of 3:43.33 from last month’s U.S. Nationals, ended up 11th in 3:46.38. The other American, Luka Mijatovic, struggled mightily in his first World Championships swim, ending up 16th and almost 14 seconds off his runnerup effort from Nationals in 3:59.68.
Men’s 50 Butterfly
The first big swim of the prelims came from France’s Maxime Grousset, who blasted a time of 22.74 in the first seeded heat. He was just four hundredths off his season-best mark of 22.70 that ranks second in the world this year. Grousset previously won bronze in the event at the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka. Two heats later, Switzerland’s Noè Ponti equaled that time. Ponti won gold in the 50 and 100 fly at the Short Course World Championships in December after lowering the world record on multiple occasions in the fall.
In between those two performances, Ilya Kharun put forth a mark of 22.85. The Canadian who won Olympic bronze in both the 100 and 200 fly has the top time this year at 22.68. Portugal’s Diogo Ribeiro, the world champion last February, took fourth in the morning in 22.90, with the Netherlands’ Nyls Korstanje and Great Britain’s Ben Proud tying for fifth in 22.96. Greece’s Stergios Bilas took seventh in 23.04, and Italy’s Thomas Ceccon placed eighth in 23.06. Proud (2017) and Ceccon (2023) have also captured world titles in the event while Ceccon is best known for his backstroke skills, holding the world record in the 100 back and winning Olympic gold in Paris.
The remaining semifinalists included Canada’s Josh Liendo (23.16), Austria’s Simon Bucher (23.20), the United States’ Dare Rose (23.20), Brazil’s Gui Caribe (23.21), the Netherlands’ Sean Niewold (23.21), Egypt’s Abdelrahman Elaraby (23.21), the United States’ Michael Andrew (23.22) and Germany’s Luka Armbruster (23.28). Andrew is also a past medalist in this event, having won bronze in 2022 and silver last February
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay
