By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2026 GERMAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Thursday, April 23rd – Sunday, April 26th Berlin, Germany LCM (50m) Day 1 Recap Live Results LivestreamDay two of the 2026 German Championships saw a thrilling duel between former European Record holder Sven Schwarz and Olympic champion Lucas Märtens in the men’s 800m freestyle.
24-year-old Schwarz busted out a time of 7:41.14 to narrowly defeat Märtens, who touched a hair later in 7:41.31.
It was essentially a two-man race, with Moritz Bockes getting to the wall well behind in 7:56.34 for the bronze medal.
24-year-old 400m free world record holder Märtens led through the 550m mark before Schwarz made his move, but the pair were side-by-side for the entire contest. Schwarz sealed the deal with a final 50m of 26.73.
Schwarz is the former European Record holder in this event, owning a lifetime best of 7:38.12, which he established at the 2025 German Championships. However, teammate Johannes Liebmann downed that mark with an even swifter 7:37.94 at the Swim Open Stockholm just earlier this month.
Märtens’ lifetime best remains at the 7:39.10 he logged at the 2025 edition of the Swim Open Stockholm.
Behind Liemann and Australia’s Sam Short, Schwarz and Märtens now rank #3 and #4 in the world on the season.
2025-2026 LCM Men 800 FREE
JohannesGERLIEBMANN04/127:37.942SamuelSHORTAUS7:40.9803/053Zhang ZhanshuoCHN7:44.4503/224OliverKLEMETGER7:45.6604/125Kim Woomin KOR7:46.4103/23View Top 26»After the race, Schwarz told the German Swimming Federation, “That was great publicity for swimming. Finishing in first place always feels good. And who knows, maybe one of us will break the record someday.”
“I’m very happy with my performance. After so many competitions recently, I need to train a bit now, but this performance definitely makes me want more,” said Märtens.
In other men’s races on day two, Kaii Winkler produced a solid time of 48.16 to reap gold in the 100m free.
Winkler opened in 23.07 and closed in 25.09 to hold a healthy advantage over Josha Salchow, who was relegated to runner-up status in 48.71.
Cornelius Jahn bagged the bronze in 49.21.
Former U.S. swimmer Winkler’s performance sliced .01 off his former PB of 48.17 notched at the U.S. Open Championships last December and he remains Germany’s #3 performer of all time in the event.
Top 5 German Men’s LCM 100 Freestyle Performers All-Time
Josha Salchow – 47.80, 2024 Rafael Miroslaw – 47.92, 2022 Kaii Winkler – 48.16, 2026 Marco Di Carli – 48.24, 2011 Steffen Deibler – 48.27, 2016Melvin Imoudu was the top performer in the 100m breaststroke, clearing the minute barrier in a gold medal-worthy outing of 59.33.
Next to the wall was Lucas Matzerath, who touched in 1:00.04 ahead of Mathis Schönung, who delivered 1:00.33 for the bronze.
Imoudu, who owns a lifetime best of 58.84 from the 2024 European Championships, now ranks 7th in the world at the moment.
2025-2026 LCM Men 100 BREAST
VanUSA Mathias 04/1758.192SHINOHASHI JPNWJR 58.6703/193SimoneCERASUOLOITA58.8204/154IvanKozhakinRUS58.9104/205AdamPeatyGBR58.9704/14View Top 26»“That felt really good. I’m happy with the time at this point,” Imoudu said of his tenth national title. The Olympic fourth-place finisher still has two more German Championship wins than Schwarz and Märtens.
The women’s 100m free saw Linda Roth establish a new German Age Record for 17-year-olds when she ripped a lifetime best of 54.30 in the morning heats.
That overtook Daniela Schreiber‘s age standard by over .40, and that benchmark had stood for 19 years.
In the final, Roth added slightly, but still put up a powerful time of 54.50 to claim the bronze.
Winning the event was Nina Holt, who improved her 54.59 heats swim with a podium-topping outing of 54.38 (26.12/28.26).
Nicole Maier split the pair with 54.47, good enough for the silver.
Along with the medalists, Juliana Dora Boeska (54.57) and Nina Jazy (54.97) made it a total of five women who achieved the European Championships qualification time.
On her performance, winner Holt stated, “I’m absolutely thrilled to have won this title for the third time. But the fact that the European Championship team is growing so much is really cool for the relay team.”
24-year-old Anna Elendt did major damage in the women’s 100m breaststroke, taking the title in a mark of 1:06.91.
European Junior champion Lena Ludwig finished in 1:08.08 as the silver medalist, with Celina Schmidt rounding out the podium in 1:10.22.
Elendt is the reigning world champion in this event, having ripped a lifetime best and German national record of 1:05.19 last year in Singapore.
“Even if the timing isn’t quite what I wanted yet, it’s always great to swim in Berlin in front of a home crowd,” Elendt said of her 13th national title.
“In a European Championship year, you can try things out in training. Whether it’s heading in the right direction or not, we’ll probably see at the end of the year.”
Finally, Olympic medalist Isabel Gose raced her way to a 4th consecutive gold medal in the women’s 1500m freestyle.
23-year-old Gose produced a mark of 15:59.42, within striking distance of her season-best of 15:55.04 hit at the Stockholm Swim Open to currently rank 3rd in the world.
“The time is very solid,” Gose said post-race. “My fitness is good; I’ve laid a solid foundation over the years. We’re working more on the finer details.”
Silver went to Leonie Märtens, sister of Lukas Märtens and Fabienne Wenske‘s time of 16:34.33 garnered her the bronze medal.
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