2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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We are three days into the 2025 World Championships, and the people at the top have been swimming very well, but the event winners aren’t the only ones swimming fast. Here are some of the swims that you might’ve missed on day three of the meet.
Yang Peiqi finished 8th in the women’s 1500 freestyle, touching in 16:04.93. This was a three second drop from the 16:08.19 that she swam yesterday to qualify for the final. At last year’s World Championships in Doha, Yang finished 6th in the event in a best time of 16:13.08, marking an eight second drop in the last 18 months. With this swim, she will move up to the eighth fastest performer in Chinese history in the event, just behind Hou Yawen‘s 16:04.74 from 2019.
Also in the distance events, we saw a very strong swim from Canada’s Ethan Ekk. This is not Ekk’s first time on one of these lists, after he made the day one “swims you might’ve missed” thanks to his new best in the men’s 400 freestyle to finish 9th. He did it again today, taking 14th in the men’s 800 freestyle while making it under 8:00 for the first time in his career. He won the first heat by nine seconds in 7:53.50. This was a seven second drop from his previous best of 8:00.42 from last July, and moves him up to 2nd all time in the Canadian rankings. He comes in just ahead of Eric Hedlin‘s 2013 swim of 7:53.78 and now sits about 12 seconds behind Ryan Cochrane‘s National Record time of 7:41.86.
Raewkon Noel also broke a barrier this morning, swimming 1:59.89 in the men’s 200 butterfly to win the first heat, improving from his seed time of 2:02.52 that he swam at the Pan American Championships in May.
Finally, Korea’s Choi Dongyeol qualified for the men’s 50 breaststroke semifinal from heat six, a non-circle seeded heat. He touched in 27.13 to earn the 13th spot in the semifinals. There, he dropped to 27.05 to finish 15th. Choi has been faster, setting the Korean National Record at 26.93 at the Asian Games in 2023.
Strikes me as a pretty intelligent young man-(Stanford after all)-swimming is like all things, its a problem that must solved.He,ll solve it and have a good swim career. ditto for Oliver Dawson. Laon Kim still to come.
Ethan is doing a fantastic job at the Worlds. Personal bests and high rankings bode well for this teen. I hope his stint at Stanford will prep him well for the upcoming Olympics. Add a bit more speed (from yards competition) to his current endurance should put him on a path to setting new Canadian records.
Yeah, because the Stanford men’s team is really known for preparing people well for the Olympics
My comment about Stanford was in reference to NCAA competition, not about the swimming program at Stanford. I can’t speak to that because I’m not familiar with it. You’re obviously living in the past, eh?
By the way, the past (eh!) is in reference to pasta … eh Fettucine!