{"id":592482,"date":"2024-07-27T03:42:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T10:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=592482"},"modified":"2024-07-27T03:49:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T10:49:57","slug":"paris-olympics-day-1-prelims-lukas-martens-tops-400-free-qualifying-after-flirting-with-world-record-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-1-prelims-lukas-martens-tops-400-free-qualifying-after-flirting-with-world-record-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 1 Prelims: Lukas Martens Tops 400 Free Qualifying After Flirting With World-Record Pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 1 Prelims: Lukas Martens Tops 400 Free Qualifying After Flirting With World-Record Pace<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three minutes, forty seconds: that is the barrier pushed but never surpassed in the men’s 400 freestyle, even if swimmers have been reaching for that time for more than a decade.\u00a0Ian Thorpe <\/strong>twice came up just short, finishing his career with a world record of 3:40.08.\u00a0Paul Biedermann<\/strong> clipped that mark by one hundredth during the supersuit era of 2009, but textile-only swimwear returned shortly thereafter. China’s\u00a0Sun Yang<\/strong> won Olympic gold in 2012 in 3:40.14 but never swam any faster.<\/p>\n

Last year, Australia’s Sam Short<\/strong> and Tunisia’s\u00a0Ahmed Hafnaoui<\/strong> joined the 3:40-club at the World Championships, with Short beating out Hafnaoui for the world title by two hundredths, 3:40.68 to 3:40.70. Earlier this year, Germany’s\u00a0Lukas Martens<\/strong> made a run at the barrier before clocking 3:40.33. Entering the Olympic Games, the expectation has been that it would take a world record to win gold when these men faced off.<\/p>\n

For a moment, it appeared that might come in prelims as Martens raced Australia’s Eljiah Winnington<\/strong> in the final heat of the event, with the duo under Biedermann’s pace by more than two seconds at one point and by one second heading into the final 100 meters. They would fall off the pace, likely by design, but they will be front-and-center under a record watch at night.<\/p>\n

Martens finished at 3:44.13, good for the top overall time out of prelims. Winnington’s 3:44.87 was good for fourth-best into the evening round while Germany got a second swimmer back into the heat as\u00a0Oliver Klemet\u00a0<\/strong>placed third in the heat at 3:45.75, the eighth-best time overall.<\/p>\n