Success coach Bernd Berkhahn (right) and the current four-time world champion Florian Wellbrock (3rd VR) in conversation
Photo: Image/Jo Kleindl
The study of schedules at large international championships is a routine for Lukas Märtens, but the world championships currently running in Singapore gave him some headaches. Because less, that also applies to the best swimmers on this globe, is usually more. That is why the Magdeburg native only starts on three single routes in these title fights.
Severe decision, easy lead
Actually, the 23-year-old had qualified for four competitions, after a long considerations he and his home trainer Bernd Berkhahn then dilated the 200 freestyle in favor of the 800 meter freestyle. “It was really a very difficult decision,” says Märtens “ND”. After all, he had traveled to Singapore with the world’s third fastest time this year. The current world champion over 400 meters of freestyle this year is still a little better over the second longest distance in the pool: In 2025, only the Hanoverian Sven Schwarz was faster in 2025. The preliminary run on Tuesday was the current number one in the world comparatively discreet. “It was a bit sniffing, seeing what the others do. Nobody really wanted to put the cards on the table, «Schwarz commented on his third place over the 800 meters.
Lukas Märtens, as a seventh for the final this Wednesday, had to fight a little more, but has been with himself since his victory over half the distance at the start of the pelvic competitions. “My should be fulfilled here, so I am very relaxed,” emphasized Märtens, who said a special thoughts about the 800 meters freestyle before the World Cup: “I have the little extra incentive to get my German record back.” And with that, the native of Wunstorfer also broke into the Magdeburg Phalanx of the German top swimmers on the long freestyle routes.
Dominance in the pool and open water
The German Swimming Association (DSV) dominates in the pool, especially among men at the distances from 400 meters. The Magdeburg training group supervised by Bernd Berkhahn was almost invincible: six of the seven World Cup titles in Singapore went to swimmers who train under Berkhahn in Saxony-Anhalt’s capital, including the Australian double world champion Moesha Johnson. But first of all: Florian Wellbrock with four titles, including the success with the German open water relay with the Magdeburg training partners Oliver Klemet, Isabel Gose and Celine Rieder.
At its only start in the pool, Wellbrock is now the race as a favorite over 1500 meters freestyle. One of his toughest adversaries is likely to be Sven Schwarz, in the current world rankings in second place behind Wellbrock. There is no open water world champion Klemet: the Hesse -born, for three years in Magdeburg, is number three in the world through marathond distance in the pool. However, only two athletes per nation are allowed on the starting block at the World Cup.
Meticulous worker
The head of these concentrated success is the native of Schleswig Berkhahn. At the end of 2012 he came to Magdeburg, where the 54-year-old has been working as a national coach since 2019 from DSV 2018. In addition to the “long distances” area, Berkhahn has been responsible for open water swimming in the same function since June 1st. “He is a person who lives this sport,” says Olympic champion Märtens about the meticulous worker on the edge of the pool. Regular altitude training camps are part of the standard program under the conscientious chief coach. Berkhahn also maintains a particularly intensive exchange with the Institute for Applied Training Science in Leipzig.
The great success of the Magdeburg railway pullers have long since called the doping control of the World Aquatics World Aquatics: In the first half of 2025, the swimmers caught by Berkhahn were twice to three times as often tested compared to the global average.
Many doping controls
The head of the German swimming does not even come as an inconvenient. When the Magdeburg Lukas Märtens had undercut the 16 -year -old world record of Paul Biedermann over 400 meters of freestyle in April, Bernd Berkhahn of the »Süddeutsche Zeitung« immediately dictated into the block: »We do not dop. Our athletes are very often checked, so it would be impossible to remain undetected. It is our ambition to beat the others with legal means. “