FLASH! Sven Schwarz Takes Down European 800 Free Record; Lowers Daniel Wiffen’s Standard
Sven Schwarz set a European 800m freestyle record of 7:38.12 at the German Championships in Berlin as he overhauled the previous standard set by Daniel Wiffen.
Schwarz sliced 0.07 from Wiffen’s time of 7:38.19 en-route to gold at Paris 2024 and elevated himself to fifth all-time with the fifth-fastest performance, topped by Zhang Lin’s eye-watering 7:32.12 WR from the 2009 World Championships.
Zhang and Oussama Mellouli (7:35.27) fill the top two slots all-time with their performances coming at the peak of the supersuited era. Next in the rankings comes Ahmed Hafnaoui’s 7:37.00 as he secured gold at the 2023 worlds with the Tunisian currently serving a 21-month ban for three whereabouts failures. Sam Short (7:37.76) and Schwarz are now second and third quickest all-time in textile.
He took almost a second off Lukas Märtens’ German record of 7:39.10 at last month’s Swim Open Stockholm. It was a huge PB for the 23-year-old whose previous best of 7:41.77 was set as he claimed gold at the European U23 Championships in Dublin in 2023.
Schwarz and Märtens head to the World Championships in Singapore as the fifth and 11th fastest man over 16 lengths in history.
Florian Wellbrock took second in 7:43.79 with Oliver Klemet third in 7:44.61.
Top 5 Performers All-Time
7:32.12: Zhang Lin, 2009 World Championships
7:35.27: Oussama Mellouli, 2009 World Championships
7:37.00: Ahmed Hafnaoui, 2023 World Championships
7:37.76: Sam Short, 2023 World Championships
7:38.12: Sven Schwarz, 2025 German Championships
