2025 World Championships: Day 8 Prelims Live Recap

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• How To Watch
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Entry Book
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Well folks, this is it. We have made it to the final prelims session of the 2025 World Championships, and boy has it been an interesting one. In the last eight days we have seen upsets, and swimmers scratch events they were heavy favorites to win, and a few World Records, and the action is not done yet.

Today’s prelims session has some of the most anticipated events of the meet. The two best swimmers in the world right now, Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh, will be taking the pool in the 400 IM, an event where their primary competition is the clock and the World Records they already own.

The meet will start with four heats of the men’s 200 IM and France’s Marchand will swim in heat four lane four as he attempts to earn his spot in the final this evening. His biggest competition, American Carson Foster, announced earlier that he would be scratching the event due to an ankle injury, and the 2nd seed Tomoyuki Matsushita will be swimming in the lane directly next to Marchand, seeded almost six seconds back.

The women’s 400 IM will have three heats, and did not have any major scratches. Summer McIntosh has the top seed by 10 seconds over the Americans seeded 2nd and 3rd. We have not seen Katie Grimes or Emma Weyant yet this week, so we are completely in the dark about how they have been impacted by the illness traveling around Team USA.

The meet will end with the prelims of the men’s and women’s 4×100 medley relays. As of the time of publishing, they have not announced the lineups for the relays, but whatever they are, it will be interesting. The men’s teams from Australia, China, The United States, and the NAB delegation have all missed a relay final at these championships, so they will all be attempting to prevent that from happening again.

The women’s relays are a little more straightforward, especially with American Torri Huske getting her feet back under her in the last few days in regard to the American illness. They are probably still the favorites, but they have to qualify for the final first, and as we have learned, that is not a sure thing.

This one will be fast, so take your bathroom breaks now if you want to see all the action.

Men’s 400 I.M. — Prelims

• World Record: 4:02.50 – Leon Marchand, France (2023)
• World Junior Record: 4:10.02 – Ilya Borodin, Russia (2021)
• Championship Record: 4:02.50 – Leon Marchand, France (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Leon Marchand (FRA) – 4:02.50
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Leon Marchand (FRA) – 4:02.95

Top 8 Qualifiers

1. Tomoyuki Matsushita (JPN)- 4:10.39
2. Asaki Nishikawa (JPN)-4:10.41
3. Ilia Borodin (NAB)- 4:10.63
4. Max Litchfield (GBR)- 4:11.41
5. Maxim Stupin (NAB)- 4:11.53
6. Brendon Smith (AUS)- 4:13.08
7. Leon Marchand (FRA)- 4:13.19
8. Gabor Zombori (HUN)- 4:13.59

Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita grabbed the top time of the morning in the men’s 400 IM, touching in 4:10.39 to just barely beat country mate Asaki Nishikawa‘s 4:10.41 from the heat prior.

Matsushita was out in 2nd behind Leon Marchand after the first 200 meters, but he surged ahead on the breaststroke leg, splitting 1:11.55 to move into the lead, where he stayed for the freestyle leg to lock up lane four in tonight’s final.

In the 3rd heat, the first circle seeded heat, Japan’s Nishikawa got out to an early lead with Brendon Smith just behind him. Great Britain’s Max Litchfield and ilia Borodin from the NAB delegation began closing on the backstroke, and on the breaststroke leg, the whole field closed in on itself.

Borodin (29.73), Maxim Stupin (29.63), also from the NAB, and Litchfield (29.66) began closing on Nishikawa (30.42)  on the first 50 of the freestyle, but Nisikawa came home in 27.76 to secure the event win by just two tenth over Borodin, who came home in 28.07.

Leon Marchand almost took it too easy in the prelims, shutting it down hard on the breaststroke and freestyle after leading through the first 200 mark. He finished 2nd in his heat, splitting 1:13.04 on the breaststroke and 1:01.77 (31.43/30.34) on the freestyle. He was the only swimmer in the top eight to split a 31 second 50 on one of the freestyle 50s.

Women’s 400 I.M. — Prelims

• World Record: 4:23.65 – Summer McIntosh, Canada (2025)
• World Junior Record: 4:24.38 – Summer McIntosh, Canada (2024)
• Championship Record: 4:27.11 – Summer McIntosh, Canada (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 4:27.11
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 4:27.71

Top 8 Qualifiers

1. Summer McIntosh (CAN)- 4:35.56
2. Jenna Forrester (AUS)- 4:36.17
3. Yu Zidi (CHN)- 4:36.49
4. Waka Kobori (JPN)- 4:36.62
5. Emma Weyant (USA)- 4:36.75
6. Mio Narita (JPN)- 4:37.12
7. Katie Grimes (USA)- 4:38.26
8. Freya Colbert (GBR)- 4:38.31

Summer McIntosh easily earned her spot in tonight’s final, crusing to a time of 4:35.56 to earn lane four, a little more than half-a-second ahead of Australia’s Jenna Forrester.

McIntosh was out fast in the fly, and then seemed to shut it down for the rest of the race, splitting 1:00.86 on the first 100, 1:08.04 on the backstroke, 1:21.46 on the breast and 1:04.60 on the freestyle.

Jenna Forrester gave the Canadian chase through the breaststroke leg, turning just ahead of her at the 300 mark after splitting 1:20.08. Her freestyle leg was 1:05.47 which allowed McIntosh to take the lead back.

Also in the final heat was American Emma Weyant, who was far behind the field after the butterfly, splitting 1:03.84. She had very strong breaststroke and freestyle legs of 1:19.28 and 1:02.86 to earn her way back into the top eight.

Heat one saw 12-year-old Chinese sensation Yu Zidi walk away with the heat win, swimming 4:36.49 to chase down American Katie Grimes who was out first after the backstroke with her 1:21.76 breaststroke leg and her 1:02.43 freestyle leg to Grimes’s 1:22.90 and 1:03.73.

MEN’S 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY– Prelims

• World Record: USA (R. Murphy, M. Andrew, C. Dressel, Z. Apple) — 3:26.78 (2021)
• World Championship Record: USA — 3:27.20 (2023)
• 2024 Olympic Champions: China (J. Xu, H.Qin, J. Sun, Z. Pan) — 3:27.46
• 2023 World Champions: USA (R. Murphy, N. Fink, D. Rose, J. Alexy) – 3:27.20

Top 8 Qualifiers

1. United States- 3:29.65
2. Neutral Athletes ‘B’- 3:30.05
3. Italy- 3:30.40
4. Canada- 3:30.86
5. Netherlands- 3:31.07
6. Great Britain- 3:31.75
7. France- 3:32.35
8. Korea- 3:32.54

The United States’ decision to load their relay with their top athletes paid off this morning earning them the top spot in tonight’s final as the only team to swim under 3:30 in the prelims.

Tommy Janton led the relay off in 53.21, a little more than half-a-second faster than the 53.87 he swam in the individual event prelims. Campbell McKean swam the breaststroke leg in 59.32, handing of to Dare Rose who split a blistering 50.39 on the butterfly leg. Jack Alexy brought the team home on the freestyle in 46.73, the fastest split in the field by a significant margin, and enough to give the US lane four tonight.

The NAB team of Kliment Kolesnikov (53.02), Ivan Kozhakin (58.72), Andrei Minakov (50.68), and Ivan Girev (47.63) came in at 3:30.05 from the first heat to qualify 2nd, just ahead of Italy’s 3:30.40.

Great Britain’s Ollie Morgan had the fastest backstroke split of 52.90, Canada’s Ilya Kharun had the fastest butterfly split at 49.98, and he Netherlands’s Caspar Corbeau had the fastest breaststroke split in 58.60.

Australia and China will not participate in this evening’s final after finishing 9th and 11th in the prelims. China’s relay was made up of Wang Shun (53.96) Qin Haiyang (59.58), Xu Fang (51.39) and Pan Zhanle (47.76) to touch in 3:32.69, just over a tenth out of the top eight.

The Australians were 3:32.87 with Joshua Edwards-Smith (54.35), Nash Wilkes (59.95), Matthew Temple (50.22), and Kyle Chalmers (48.35).

Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay– Prelims

• World Record: 3:49.63– United States (R. Smith, L. King, G. Walsh, T. Huske) (2024)
• World Junior Record: 3:58.38– Canada (T. Ruck, P. Oleksiak, R. Smith, K. Sanchez) (2017)
• World Championship Record: 3:50.40– United States (2019)
• 2023 World Champion: United States– 3:52.08
• 2024 Olympic Champion: United States– 3:49.63

Top 8 Qualifiers

1. United States- 3:54.49
2. Australia- 3:55.80
3. Germany- 3:56.44
4. China- 3:56.70
5. Japan- 3:56.85
6. Canada- 3:58.32
7. Great Britain- 3;59.00
8. Neutral Athletes B- 3:59.36

The United States was the only team that did not include their stars on the relay this morning, but they still earned the top seed by more than a second.

Katharine Berkoff led off the relay in 58.29, the fastest backstroke split in the field. Lilly King swam her final international relay, splitting 1:06.46 on the breaststroke leg. Claire Curzan did the butterfly in 56.90, and Simone Manuel split 52.84 on the freestyle, which was also the fastest split.

The Australian women won the heat prior with their ‘A’ team, though they did not appear to be giving their full effort this morning, finishing in 3:55.80, more than six tenths ahead of Germany’s 3:56.44 for 3rd. Kaylee McKeown led off in 59.08 before handing off to young breaststroker Sienna Toohey, who split 1:06.95. Alexandria Perkins swam 56.73 on the fly leg, and Mollie O’Callaghan was 53.06 on the freestyle.

Germany was 3rd with two of the fastest splits in the field. Anna Elendt split 1:05.34 on the breaststroke leg and Angelina Kohler was 56.27 on the butterfly, both of which were faster than any other swimmer this morning.. Lise Seidel led them off in 1:00.98 and Nina Holt swam the freestyle in 53.85, putting them three tenths ahead of China’s 3:56.70