Lucas Matzerath is a thoughtful, inquisitive young man. After the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, he said on Monday evening around 1000 kilometers southwest of the capital, he started learning Japanese. That helps him now in Fukuoka, which is also in Japan, at the swimming world championships. Christian Hansmann, director of competitive sports at the German Swimming Federation (DSV), said he was talking to the hotel staff in their language from time to time these days. And not just the usual words, i.e. Konnichiwa, Arigatō and Sayonara for hello, thank you and goodbye.
None of his language skills helped Matzerath in his World Cup final over 100 meters breaststroke. The 23-year-old from Weinheim, who trains in Bochum, had to bury his hopes of a medal and ended up fifth when the Chinese Qin Haiyang won. Curiously enough, three swimmers shared second place: Nicolo Martinengh from Italy, the Dutchman Arno Kamminga and the American Nic Fink all finished ahead of Matzerath in 58.72 seconds. This just missed his German record, which he had set in the World Cup preliminary. Nevertheless, he achieved the best German result in this discipline since 1986.
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From starting block 5 to 5th place: Lucas Matzerath.
(Photo: Issei Kato/Reuters)
“I had hoped to be able to swim faster than my time yesterday. The attack didn’t quite fit,” said Matzerath, who was not dissatisfied. As so often, he was one of the last to dive into the pool, the start is not one of his strengths. “We’ve been working on it, it’s gotten better compared to last year’s European Championship,” said Matzerath, who then came fourth at the turn, but it didn’t work optimally. So he had no chance to get close to the leading quartet.
The model athlete is still considered one of the great German swimming hopes for the Olympic Games in Paris. And the electrical engineering student has created a suitable environment in Bochum. He has known his trainer Mark Jayasundara since 2012, “I have complete confidence in his teaching skills”. He now sees the World Cup in Fukuoka as a “trial run for next year”.
He is now slowly letting the season end after the World Cup. Immediately afterwards he would like to travel around Japan with his father, who was sitting in the stands, for two more weeks. Lucas Matzerath will then definitely be a good interpreter.
