Singapore 2025: Germany’s Maertens wins first world gold – Italian and Dutch relay teams add silver and bronze as swimming gets underway

Germany’s 23-year-old Olympic champion Lukas Maertens earned his first world gold in the opening swimming final of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships as he won the men’s 400m freestyle despite heavy pressure from the Australia’s Samuel Short.

European swimmers ended with a complete set of medals after the first evening of racing as Italy matched their 2024 performance by taking silver in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and The Netherlands claimed bronze in the women’s 4x100m freestyle.

Maertens, bronze medallist at last year’s World Championships, was the favourite in Singapore after becoming the first man to break 3:40 for the 400m freestyle in April, when he lowered the world record to 3:39.96.

But he was made to work very hard by his 21-year-old rival – who missed an Olympic medal by one place in Paris – trailing him by 0.06 as he turned for home before making up the gap to touch first.

Short, who had made his move after reaching 200m trailing by 0.19, turned the race round to lead by 0.17 at the 250m mark, and extended that to 0.24 with 100m remaining.

But he could not quite hold out against his German rival’s remorseless speed over the final 50 metres.

Bronze went to South Korea’s defending champion Woomin Kim in 3:42.60, with Sweden’s Victor Johansson finishing fourth in 3:44.68.

“There was a lot of pressure,” Maertens told World Aquatics. “Also as a world record holder, it was not easy to fight these guys. But I tried my best, I gave out everything, and I’m really happy and proud to be a world champion. Now, Germany has a new world champion, and that’s not usual I think. Really proud.”

Short commented: “It’s good to be back on the podium. It was a pleasure racing the Olympic champion, world record holder and world champion. So I knew he was gonna be a tough opponent.

“When I was with him at 100 to go I knew it was going to be a dog fight. He’s pretty good at everything so I knew I wasn’t going to be pulling away and I was hurting as well. He got a good finish on me and I just wasn’t quite good today.

“I thought I might’ve done enough. Then I saw Woomin coming on the inside… it was a good race. I put my head down in the last five metres. I won two years ago by 0.02. Fine margins. Maybe if I were as tall as him I would’ve won – but I’m this shorter!”

The last three places went respectively to Italy’s Marco De Tullio n 3:44.92, Petar Mitsin of Bulgaria in 3:45.28 and Germany’s Paris 2024 10km silver medallist Oliver Klemet in 3:46.86.

Manuel Frigo was the only one of the Italian quartet who won world silver in last year’s 4x100m freestyle to feature in today’s final, where a time of 3:09.58 earned second place behind the Oceania and Championship record time of 3:08.97 by Australia, for whom Kyle Chalmers produced a super-fast split of 46.53.

Frigo, Lorenzo Zazzeri, Carlos D’Ambrosio and Paris 2024 100m backstroke champion Thomas Ceccon finished one place ahead of the United States on 3:09.64, with the British quartet of Jacob Mills, Matt Richards, Jacob Whittle and Duncan Scott finishing fourth in 3:10.73.

“It was an amazing race,” Ceccon said. “Pretty fast time for everyone, especially for Australia. We went pretty fast too, but not fast enough. Very good time for me, 47.1 is pretty solid, so we are happy.”

As with the Italian men’s team, the Dutch women’s 4x100m quartet contained only one member of the selection that had won world gold in 2024, namely anchor-leg swimmer Marit Steenbergen.

After the efforts of Milou Van Wijk, Tessa Giele and Sam Van Nunen she brought the team home in 3:33.89 ahead of China, who clocked 3:34.17.

Australia, last year’s silver medallists, took gold in 3:30.60 ahead of the United States, who clocked 3:31.04.

Giele commented: “We knew we had a chance on a medal, but you can’t really expect it or hope for it, so we just went into this with all we got, and hoped for the best.”

France finished fifth in 3:34.62, with Italy and Hungary filling the last two places in 3:35.18 and 3:36.34 respectively.

Maertens’ team-mates Isabel Gose and Maya Werner reached the first women’s final, the 400m freestyle, in which Canada’s 18-year-old Summer McIntosh won the first of what she hopes will be five gold medals in Singapore in a time of 3:56.26.

Gose, who won Olympic bronze and world short course gold at 1500m last year, was fifth in 4:02.90, with 20-year-old Werner, who won the 400m and 800m freestyle titles at this month’s European Aquatics U23 Championships in Samorin, finishing eighth in 4:09.38.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

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