Liebmann sets European 800m freestyle record and Sjostrom is back with silver at Malmsten Swim Open

Germany’s 19-year-old Johannes Liebmann lowered the men’s European 800m freestyle record to 7:37.94 at the Malmsten Swim Open Stockholm, where home idol Sarah Sjostrom marked her return to action with 50m freestyle silver.

Liebmann took more than 12 seconds off his personal best to eclipse the time of 7:38.12 set by fellow German Sven Schwarz last May – which had bettered the 7:38.19 produced by Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen in winning Paris 2024 gold.

This was another significant career progression for the German teenager after his performances last season.

At December’s European Aquatics Short Course Championships in Lublin Liebmann finished fourth in the men’s 400m and men’s 800m freestyle, setting one world junior record in the first event and two in the latter.

He now tops the European lists in both the 800m and 1500m as he heads towards this summer’s European Aquatics Championships in Paris.

That is also the goal of Sweden’s 32-year-old Sjostrom, who gave birth to son Adrian seven months ago and offered early evidence of her returning form in her first race since winning Paris 2024 gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle.

She clocked 24.36 in finishing a close second to Hong Kong’s multiple Olympic medallist Siobhan Haughey, who won in 24.34.

Sjostrom, who set the 50m freestyle world record of 23.61 in 2023, resumed training earlier this year with intention of qualifying for this summer’s EA centrepiece and adding to her record total of 28 medals in those Championships.

Speaking to Swedish media before the race Sjostrom, who set the 50m butterfly world record of 24.43 in 2014, explained why she was concentrating for the moment on freestyle:

“I feel like I needed more time to find my rhythm in the butterfly and I need more strength in my core and my legs.

“I really enjoy following this process of coming back again, so it’s quite nice when I start now, April 2026, I can compare next year, April 2027, and follow the process all the way up until the Olympics in Los Angeles.

“That’s why I wanted to start quite early so I will have an even better progression…so if I start on 25.00 it will be great to see what I can do in a few weeks’ time.”

She has already done better than that…

Meanwhile Wiffen won the men’s 400m title at the Irish Open in Bangor in 3:49.35 a day after claiming the 1500m title.

Elsewhere John Shortt completed a clean sweep as he won the 200m backstroke in a national record of !:55.70.

The 19-year-old Limerick-based athlete – who won European indoor, European junior and world junior gold last year – thus moved to fourth in this season’s rankings behind Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov, who had clocked 1:55.36 at his national championships a little earlier in the day.

Shortt had earlier set an Irish record of 53.17 in the 100m backstroke and won the 50m backstroke in a Championship record of 25.08.

Shortt told Swim Ireland:  “Brilliant, you know, I think the last two weeks have been really solid, in terms of every time I’ve gotten in the water this season I’ve improved.

“So I think it’s been a really solid last three days and I’m excited to see where the summer goes.”

Mona McSharry and Jack Kelly swept the respective women’s and men’s breaststroke events.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

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