Men’s 50m backstroke – Kliment Kolesnikov blasts championship record
Few people are better at crossing one length of the pool backwards than Kliment Kolesnikov. The world record holder tied the second fastest performance in history on the final night of the 22nd World Aquatics Championships, swimming 23.68.
Holding eight of the ten fastest swims in history, Kolesnikov broke the championship record set all the way back in Rome 2009 by Liam Tancock.
“I tried not to look at the results board, because I was a bit scared of looking,” Kolesnikov said. “It’s the last day, everyone is nervous, everyone wants to win. For me, especially as the world record holder. I tried to go as fast as I can, but at the same time I didn’t see anyone on the sides, because it’s the backstroke.
“I just touched the board as fast as I can… I didn’t want to watch. I just tried to figure out by the sound what’s happening around. Three seconds after, I checked the board and I got an unexpected result. I was expecting my timing 23.9, or 23.8, and then you realise that you did 23.68 or something? I was like come on, 12 thousandths of a second to my personal best, and it was like why couldn’t I go faster?”
Pavel Samusenko joined Kolesnikov on the podium with joint silver with South Africa’s Pieter Coetze (24.17), who broke his third African record of the week. Coetze won medals in all three backstroke races this week, following up gold in the 100m and silver in the 200m.
“It’s not my PB,” Samusenko said. “I’ve got better results, but on these competitions at this level, it’s my best. I’m glad to be second, not fourth like I was at previous championships. I’m very happy. Confidence, for sure. I know myself that I can, and now I’m going to be better and better. The Olympics are another competition, but now with more confidence and emotions.”
“I’m very proud, I’ve always been pretty even across all distances even though I mainly train for the 200, so getting a medal across all three distances is amazing and if you told me this a week or two ago I’d say I would be super happy with that too,” Coetze said.
The three medalists were all a stroke in front of the rest of the finalists, leaving Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk (24.51) way back in fourth as the World Junior champ from 2022 was a tenth off his national record.
Quintin McCarty (24.58) finished fifth for the United States in his World Championships debut at age 22, as he finished ahead of Greece’s Apostolos Christou (24.59), Australia’s Isaac Cooper (24.61), and 200m champ Hubert Kos (24.62) of Hungary.
Women’s 50m breaststroke – Ruta Meilutyte wins her fourth straight
Like the aforementioned Kolesnikov, we haven’t seen anyone better at crossing one length of the pool breaststroke than Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte (29.55), who won her fourth World title in the 50m breaststroke at age 28.
“I got emotional singing the national anthem, it means a lot to me, as well as for my country, and I love my country, and I’m just really grateful to be able to do it at this level,” Meilutyte said.
Meilutyte started her winning streak in Budapest 2022 and has continued it tonight. Having first won silver in Barcelona 2013 as a 16-year-old, Meilutyte won over the likes of China’s Tang Qianting (30.03), matching her silver from Doha 2024 in this event.
“Today’s showing was within expectations,” Tang said. “All the mental pressure and fatigue really accumulated over the meet, I felt very tired, not as excited or well-motivated as I was earlier in the meet. But I didn’t want to leave any regrets in Singapore.”
Italy’s Benedetta Pilato (30.14) won the bronze medal for her fifth straight medal in this event at Worlds, beginning her streak as a 14-year-old back in Gwangju 2019. Pilato, age 20, still has yet to win a World title in her career.
“I’m very happy with my performance,” Pilato said. “This year has been very difficult for me so today has been very good.”
Fellow Italian Anita Bottazzo (30.21) finished fourth ahead of American Lilly King (30.25), swimming the final race of her career. King, the champion from Budapest 2017 and Gwangju 2019, made sure to wait around to embrace Meilutyte at the finish as those two have shared a number of call rooms and medal ceremonies in their careers.
“Ruta and I, we’ve been through a lot together,” King said. “We’re a part of the very exclusive club and the mutual respect we have for each other is pretty amazing, so always love watching her kick some ass and respect the hell out of her and her journey, and just excited to see her continuing to do her thing.”
King was one of the captains of the American team that came down with acute gastroenteritis, causing multiple scratches and “off” performances, but the team still won the medal tally despite the challenges.
“This week has definitely been rocky but I think we’ve all had a really good attitude towards things because there are a lot of things that are just out of your hands and the illness that has spread has kind of been one of those things this week,” King said after the medley relay heat this morning. “We just take it day by day and we definitely worked our way into the meet. I mean, last night’s session was absolutely unbelievable, so I’m really proud of this group and how they’ve handled it and are taking strides in the right direction.”
King has called it a career after six Olympic medals and 14 World Championships medals.
“I bring the same energy I bring to practice every day, and I come in with a good attitude, even when we’re in for a (bad) situation,” King said. “I really try to come in and have a good attitude, make my day better, and really just try to elevate the competition around me.”
“I hope I leave the sport better than I found it,” King said after her swim. “I was kind of a voice for the young girls that are maybe a little overconfident or cocky or said the wrong thing every once in a while or just aren’t afraid to be themselves, so that’s kind of what I’m hoping I leave the youth of the sport with. Just bring a little dose of Lilly to the swimming world.”
Estonia’s Eneli Jefimova (30.29), the World Junior champ from 2023, finished sixth ahead of Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko (30.45) and Finland’s Veera Kivirinta (30.68).
Women’s 50m freestyle – Meg Harris finishes the Australia 50m freestyle sweep
Australia’s Meg Harris won her first ever World title on Sunday night in the 50m freestyle, taking down the two fastest swimmers in the world in the process. Harris flew a bit under the radar this week, turning in the fourth fastest time in the semis after the top time in the heats, as she had a dominant showing in the final.
Harris swam 24.02 in winning Australia’s first 50m freestyle World title since Kazan 2015 as the team won both the men’s and women’s 50m freestyles this week, following up McEvoy’s gold from last night. Harris, age 23, has won five gold medals in relays in her career, but won her first individual for Australia’s eighth gold medal of the championships.
“I’m sure I’ll process it later, but I’m so happy, like, that’s the most fun I’ve had in a race,” Harris said. “For a while, I’ve been pretty nervous, especially, like, specifically training for this, but decided to try and relax and talk to the girls in marshalling. And it seemed to work. So I’m happy with that.”
China’s Wu Qingfeng (24.26) and Cheng Yujie (24.28) heard the cheers from the Chinese supporters in the crowd when they touched the wall and saw the lights on their Omega blocks light up.
“I didn’t think so much about medals, I just wanted to put a good race out there,” Wu said. “My experience in Singapore… it’s just about taking each day as they come. I’ll take this medal and work hard on myself and improve further.”
“The time is within expectation, but my placing is probably better than what I thought,” Cheng said. “I really like competing on the international stage. I feel that when I compete domestically, I tend to fear losing. It’s a boost to my confidence. It’s the first time I’ve broken through my best, and to do it at a world championships is great validation.”
Americans Gretchen Walsh (24.40) and Torri Huske (24.50), who came into this meet ranked first and second in the world rankings, finished fourth and sixth, respectively, as they both had the 4x100m medley relay later on in the night.
Milou Van Wijk (24.47), the next sprint star for the Netherlands, finished fifth ahead of Belgium’s Florine Gaspard (24.63).
Shockingly, Poland’s Kasia Wasick (24.74), the top seeded swimmer from the semis and the bronze medalist from Doha 2024 and silver medalist from Budapest 2022, finished eighth.
Men’s 1500m freestyle – Ahmed Jaouadi doubles up for Tunisia’s third 1500m World title
Tunisia is once again the home of men’s distance swimming. 20-year-old Ahmed Jaouadi doubled up in the distance events this week in Singapore, taking out the 1500m final on the final night of competition at 14:34.41.
There was a lot of anticipation over this race as any of the top five to six seeds could have realistically taken the gold medal. For the first 500 meters, hardly anybody made a move across the board. American Bobby Finke, the two-time Olympic champion and world record holder, had yet to win a 1500m World title, as he set the pace leading for 650 meters.
At 700m, Germany’s Sven Schwarz, one of the breakout performers of the year, took over the lead from Finke, with Jaouadi in pursuit right next to him. The 3-time champion from open water swimming two weeks ago, Florian Wellbrock of Germany was right there as well, as was Turkiye’s Kuzey Tuncelli, the world junior champ from 2023 and perhaps a future star in this event as well.
Australia’s Sam Short, the silver medalist from the 400m freestyle a week ago, wasn’t out of it either as sickness forced him out of the 800m final earlier in the week.
By 1000 meters, Wellbrock and Tuncelli could not hang on to the pace and got dropped from the pack. Short was there, but he was losing contact as well, leaving it a three man race as well.
Finke, holding steady with Schwarz and Jaouadi, looked poised for another big finish as has become synonymous with his name. But by 1400, Jaouadi found another gear, splitting 54.49 on the final 100 meters to win the gold medal – Tunisia’s third after Oussama Mellouli (2009) and Ahmed Hafnaoui (2023).
“It was hard for every one of us, for the three of us, me, Bobby Finke and Sven Schwarz to compete,” Jaouadi said. “I think it came down to the one who wanted the gold medal more to win, and I won.”
Jaouadi moved up to sixth all-time in the process with his win, as Schwarz matched his silver from the 800m, with second place here at 14:35.69, moving up to ninth all-time. He came home in 55.47.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Schwarz said. “I can’t believe I was able to do this and I’m really proud of myself to get two medals here. I need some time to process this and we’ll see what will be next.”
Finke, coming home in 55.56, won bronze at 14:36.60, adding to his silvers from Budapest 2022 and Fukuoka 2023. It is the third fastest swim of his career.
“Sadly, I couldn’t win the gold here,” Finke said. “It’s probably the pressure I’m putting on myself to keep getting back up to that point. It’s kind of unfortunate, because I’ve always been able to perform well throughout the past year… being able to get the best time in one of my best events. But I can’t always do that. I guess this year was kind of my down year. But you know, it’s just all about getting back on that podium and the end goal is securing the gold at the 2028 LA Olympics in my home country.”
Australia’s Short finished fourth at 14:43.08 ahead of Wellbrock (14:44.29) and Tuncelli (14:52.44).
Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany (14:55.17) finished seventh ahead of France’s Damien Joly (15:19.06).
Men’s 400m IM – Leon Marchand leaves no doubt in 400m IM outside smoke
France’s Leon Marchand, fresh off a world record in the 200m IM earlier in the week, dominated in typical fashion in the 400m IM final, taking his third World title at 4:04.73, leading from start to finish. Marchand swam from lane one after a morning swim that looked a little bit painful as he swam 4:13. Was it possible he was vulnerable, leaving room for someone in the middle to take advantage and pull the upset?
Of course not, why would we ever doubt Leon Marchand? In winning the final by three and a half seconds over Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita (4:08.32), Marchand became the second man to ever win the 400m IM World title three times, joining Japan’s Daiya Seto in the process.
“Physically, it was really tough,” Marchand said. “I felt heavy in the water, especially at the bottom without fins. But I kept going and gave everything I had, because I really wanted to connect with my body. Afterward, it was hard to recover in just 30 minutes. But given what was at stake, I was determined to perform well in the relay with the team. In the end, I recovered well. I came out of it okay. Actually, I even feel kind of lifted by the whole experience.”
“I’m not sure what to say about the race… I felt really good during warm-up, and I thought I could get close to my record. Unfortunately, I’m still a bit off. It shows I’m lacking some training on the 400 IM. It’s kind of what I expected. After my 200 IM, I knew I still had a lot of power, but maybe not as much endurance as I used to.
Marchand, coached by Bob Bowman, took on an abbreviated schedule after an extended break from the pool, compared to his four event gold medal sweep at a home Olympics last year, but he showed why he is still the best swimmer in the world with this swim.
“So now it’s time to train,” Marchand said. “It was still a great race. During the breaststroke leg, I don’t know what happened — my legs just gave out all of a sudden. It was really hard, but I managed to hang on from start to finish. I didn’t look too much at the others. At the Olympics, I usually try to control what’s happening around me because I want to be Olympic champion… but this time, it felt like a different kind of race.”
Marchand was named swimmer of the meet by World Aquatics at the end of the night.
Matsushita, the World Junior champ from 2023 and the Olympic silver medalist, won the race for silver in a lifetime best, ahead of Ilia Borodin (4:09.16).
Matsushita, age 20, is coached by Norimasa Hirai.
“One of my goals was to at least win a medal, so I think I achieved the minimum result,” Matsushita said. “But to be honest, I’m frustrated with the silver medal. I truly believed I would break the Japanese national record (4:06.05), so I feel a bit disappointed in myself. Still, I do feel that winning a silver medal is an honorable achievement.”
Borodin, age 22, won his first medal on the global level in long course after he was the World Short Course champ in December.
“Next time, I will be better,” Borodin said. “I’m not happy with my time – it’s not my best. Next time.”
The race went on without American Carson Foster, who scratched the event due to an ankle injury before the 200m IM. He won silver in Budapest 2022 and Fukuoka 2023.
Japan’s Asaki Nishikawa (4:10.21) finished fourth in his World Championships debut at age 19 as the Japanese have a strong nucleus of teenagers moving forward to 2026 and beyond.
Maxim Stupin finished fifth overall at 4:12.46 ahead of Hungary’s Gabor Zombori (4:12.51), Great Britain’s Max Litchfield (4:12.77) and Australia’s Brendon Smith (4:13.28).
Women’s 400m IM – Summer McIntosh wins fourth gold in dominating final individual swim
Canada’s Summer McIntosh became the first woman since Katie Ledecky in Kazan 2015 to win four individual gold medals at the same World Championships. After a somewhat surprising bronze in last night’s thrilling 800m freestyle, McIntosh left no doubts in the pool in the 400m IM, leading from start to finish to take her third World title in the event at 4:25.78, the third fastest of her career as she holds the four fastest times in history.
McIntosh was named swimmer of the meet by World Aquatics at the end of the meet.
“I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds,” McIntosh said. “Time just didn’t matter. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall the first five times. I fell short of that, but I think it’s just going to keep me hungry and push, and keep moving forward. Even if I were to get five golds, I would still want more. That’s just my mentality.”
McIntosh, coached by Fred Vergnoux, won the final by seven seconds, with Australia’s Jenna Forrester (4:33.26) and Japan’s Mio Narita (4:33.26) dead-heating for the silver medal.
“This year has been a bit interrupted for me,” Forrester said. “I had a back injury, a shoulder injury that took me out for a while. So this prep was very, very short. It really has come down to my mindset. I’m having a lot of fun with training. And I feel like I really had the pressure off tonight. And I just wanted to perform for myself and my loved ones.”
Forrester upgrades her bronze from Fukuoka 2023, while Narita, the World Junior champ from 2022, wins her first senior medal at the global level. Narita, age 19, dropped two seconds on her lifetime best. Narita is coached by Yusuke Ebisawa.
“I’m just filled with happiness,” Narita said. “Looking at the splits, my first half was in the 2:14 range, which might have been a bit nerve-wracking if I were watching from the outside. But being in an outside lane, I couldn’t really see the other swimmers, which allowed me to focus on my own race plan. I’m glad I was able to pick up the pace right at the end.
“To be honest, in today’s prelims, the earlier heats were fast, and I was nervous, so my mindset wasn’t settled, which led to a 2:15 first half split. But in the final, I think I stayed calm and focused on my own race without being distracted by others.”
China’s Yu Zidi swam to her third fourth place finish this week in Singapore, matching her efforts from the 200m IM and 200m butterfly. Yu, age 12, swam 4:33.76 in lowering her lifetime best by almost two seconds.
The Americans, Emma Weyant (4:34.01) and Katie Grimes (4:36.52), could not match their podium appearances from Paris as they finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Japan’s Waka Kobori (4:38.05) finished seventh ahead of Great Britain’s Freya Colbert (4:40.21).
Men’s 4x100m medley – Neutral Athletes B out-match France
The Neutral Athletes B took the last men’s race of the championships, winning the medley relay at 3:26.93 in breaking the European record. The team of Miron Lifintsev (52.44), Kirill Prigoda (57.92), Andrei Minakov (50.17), and Egor Kornev (46.40) out-matched the French team, who looked poised for a gold from the outside lane.
“You know, it’s a very special moment for us,” Minakov said. “We won the World (short course) championships in December with the world record. So it’s the same four guys, four of us, we set the same standard. You know we came here to win. We knew it’s going to be a great rivalry. But you know, it’s always good to come out on top.”
After winning six individual medals this week in Singapore, France won silver in the relay at 3:27.96 with the team of Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (52.26), Leon Marchand (58.44), Maxime Grousset (49.27), and Yann Le Goff (47.99).
“It was really cool,” Ndoye-Brouard said. “The crowd was cheering for the French people. It was a really good race and we got to stand on the podium. So I think we succeeded at it.”
Grousset, the gold medalist from the 50m and 100m butterfly, matched his fastest split ever as only Caeleb Dressel (49.03, 2021) has split faster in history.
The United States, behind a monstrous anchor leg from 100m silver medalist Jack Alexy (45.95), won the bronze at 3:28.62 with the team of Tommy Janton (53.37), Josh Matheny (59.00), Dare Rose (50.30), and Alexy. Aside from three disqualifications over the years in 2001, 2007, and 2013, the Americans have never missed the podium in this relay at the World Championships. Alexy became the second in history to swim under 46 on a relay.
“It hurt a lot,” Alexy said of his anchor leg performance. “It was my goal to go 45 and I had pretty decent swims going 46. I knew that 45.5 was in me and I’m just really happy I could finish off strong and help these guys (in the team) get a podium. It’s a team effort. The morning really with Campbell, and Dare and Tommy and Josh with me.
“A lot of people have been doubting (our performance in) this relay specifically and I’m really proud of these guys for getting the job done and getting on the podium.”
“Watching that swim in the last 30 metres I knew he was going to pull it together and do what he needed to do and I’m very grateful to be a part of this relay and stand next to these guys as well,” Janton said. “It was an honour to be up there with them and he pulled through and got a 45. Second person to ever go 45, it’s truly an accomplishment.”
The Italians finished fourth at 3:28.72 behind the team of Thomas Ceccon (51.80), Nicolo Martinenghi (58.42), Federico Burdisso (51.17), and Carlos D’Ambrosio (47.33).
Canada (3:29.75), Great Britain (3:30.63), Korea (3:32.32), and the Netherlands (3:32.35) also swam in the final behind notable splits from Oliver Morgan (52.74), Caspar Corbeau (58.69), Ilya Kharun (49.83), and Josh Liendo (46.90).
Women’s 4x100m medley – United States ends meet with world record
The American women finished the World Championships with an exclamation point behind a world record in the 4x100m medley relay, taking the mark to 3:49.34 with the team of Regan Smith (57.57), Kate Douglass (1:04.27), Gretchen Walsh (54.98), and Torri Huske (52.52).
“I think we’re really happy with that swim,” Douglass said. “I think we all knew that if we all swam a really good race, we had the possibility of breaking that record. And I think we just wanted to go out on a high note, considering all the challenges. And I definitely think just with the momentum we kind of gained through the second half of the meet, this was possible. I know Torri was thinking about it, and when she heard Kate’s split, knew that that was definitely on the table for us. And I think we were just gonna put everything we could out there in the pool just so that we could end on such a great note and with another back-to-back world record from last year to this year. I think it’s a really cool thing to see our progression just as a team in this event.”
Walsh became the first woman to split faster than 55 seconds on a relay as the Americans won this relay for the fifth time in the last six World Championships.
Most, if not all, conversations around the American team this week centered around the team’s struggle with acute gastroenteritis from training camp, forcing the team to scratch some events and not perform at their best. But the team rebounded to close the meet in the fastest medley relay of all-time, as well as winning its ninth gold of the championships, the most of any nation this week.
“It’s not over till it’s over,” Smith said of handling the meet during the illness. “I’d say Team USA always knows how to finish with a bang. And I think it just sends a really positive message out to the viewers at home who didn’t really believe in us. This is the beginning of a very long quad, and it’s going to be a very successful quad, and we prove that we had a higher gold medal tally than we had in Fukuoka under insanely terrible circumstances, to put it bluntly. So I’m so excited for our future.”
“There was a recurring message that the team morale was really high, and I agree wholeheartedly in that, I’ve never felt so closely bonded to a team before in my international senior-level meet career,” Walsh said. “So even though there were highs and lows, I feel like it brought us really close together. And that’s something, a camaraderie that maybe the USA hasn’t seen in a couple of years. And I think that that, more than anything, is going to set us up really, really well for this quad, for an Olympics in our home country, just to have that kind of team atmosphere, team spirit, and just love for one another is going to be huge, and a big part of why I think we are going to be so successful.”
Australia won the silver at 3:52.67 with the team of Kaylee McKeown (57.69), Ella Ramsay (1:06.49), Alexandria Perkins (56.26), and Mollie O’Callaghan (52.23) as the team won a medal in every women’s relay this week.
China won a thrilling race for bronze at 3:54.77 with the team of Peng Xuwei (59.94), Tang Qianting (1:05.48), Zhang Yufei (56.32), and Cheng Yujie (53.03) over the likes of Neutral Athletes B (3:55.17) and Canada (3:55.63).
Germany (3:56.02), Japan (3:57.63), and Great Britain (3:57.95) also swam in the championship final. The quickest splits outside the medalists came from Kylie Masse (58.77), Anna Elendt (1:04.90), Mizuki Hirai (56.46), and Taylor Ruck (52.99).