Olympic champion Lukas Märtens is happy with his status as top favourite when he aims to claim the elusive 400 metres freestyle swimming world title later this month.

Märtens has a European title from 2022 and Olympic gold from last year in Paris in his pet event, but his haul at the worlds so far is one silver and two bronze.

He is now even more the favourite to get the gold in Singapore on July 27 because he lowered the world record to 3 minutes 39.96 seconds in April in Stockholm, making him the first man to go below 3:40 minutes.

“I like being the one who is chased,” Märtens confidently told Thursday’s Augsburger Allgemeine daily.

“It would be implausible to say that I only want to make it to the final. I want to swim a similar time as in Stockholm again, then we can definitely talk about a medal. I just have to concentrate on myself and do what I can do.”

Märtens said that “nothing will top the Olympic victory – unless there’s another one. The world record comes right after that.

“All the world championship and European championship medals are good and have all accompanied and encouraged me on this path,” he added.