Last year, Jönköping swimmer missed the Olympic Games final in Paris after previously in 2024 becoming World Championship sixth.
He polished his Swedish record, set at the World Championship in Doha last year, by 61 hundredths and recorded 3.45,26.
A form message in the World Championship start that the long-distance swimmer enjoyed to the fullest.
Go back a year, then I got the question why it went wrong. Now suddenly it's working. That's how swimming is, I haven't done much different this year, but I've listened more to my body. Otherwise, the training has been almost the same, he says.
”Even race”
Samuel Short, Australia, was the fastest with 3.42,07, 1.74 seconds ahead of Lukas Märtens, Germany, who set a world record in Stockholm in April.
It will probably be a pretty even race between third and eighth place tonight. If I can get under 3.45, I'll be very pleased, he says.
”Find more”
He is most pleased with the first half of the race and sees potential for improvement in the end.
Nice to be able to go out on 1.50, it's faster than I've ever done the first 200, then I picked it up pretty quickly too. I think it's there, in the second half, where I should try to find more. I don't think I can go out faster without getting too much lactic acid, he says.
World Championship debutant Thilda Häll, Elfsborg, who trains in Jönköping with Victor Johansson, was only nine hundredths from her personal best on 400 meters freestyle and landed on 4.16,07. She finished in 21st place.
Daniel Kertes, also a debutant in the long course World Championship, was eliminated on 100 meters breaststroke where his 1.02,34 was enough for 43rd place,
