2025 World University Games
- July 17th-23rd, 2025
- Berlin, Germany
- LCM (50 Meters)
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We have a bumper finals session on Day 3 with a number of headline events, including seven finals. We’ll start off with the blue-ribbon event of the women’s 100 freestyle, where Maxine Parker will be the favourite despite only swimming out of lane 5, and ending with a mixed medley relay that the U.S. look to run away with.
It is Lison Nowaczyk of France who will be the top seed in the women’s 100 free as she comes in a tenth ahead of Maxine Parker, 54.42 to 54.53. Both women have been faster than those times, with Parker holding a best of 53.51 from last year and Nowaczyk having been 54.02 earlier this season. Olivia Nel has swum under her previous best four times already at these championships and will be in lane 6, but the outside smoke could come from Ai Yanhan, who split 53.38 on the 4×100 free relay on Day 1 but only snuck into the final in 7th.
The men’s 100 backstroke could be the headline event of the night, with Pieter Coetzee setting a new African, South African and World University Games record in 52.18 in the semi-finals yesterday. That was a best by four-tenths of a second and ranks him 5th in the world this season and 15th all-time, putting him in the medal conversation for the World Championships in two weeks time if he can maintain his form.
Will Modglin joins him under 53 seconds after a huge best time of 52.75 last night, which makes him the fastest U.S. man so far this year, with his teammate Daniel Diehl the third seed in 53.48. After it took 53.95 to win the event two years ago, that time would rank just 5th coming into the final this year.
Leah Shackley and Kennedy Noble will aim to take the centre lanes in tomorrow’s women’s 100 backstroke final and follow up the success they had in the 200 last night. Shackley broke the WUG record in 2:05.99 with Noble taking second, and the 100 backstroke record of 59.29 could be in danger tonight. Adela Piskorska, the winner from Chengdu in this event, will not be in the field after finishing 17th this morning to miss the semi-finals but 0.05 seconds.
Mason Laur and Jack Dahlgren are in lane four of their respective 200 fly semi-finals, with a Canadian next to each of them in lane 5. Patrick Hussey and Benjamin Loewen will aim to join their North American compatriots in the final, both of them 1:58.00or better this morning. Dahlgren and Laur should be locks after setting times of 1:55.18/1:54.97 at U.S. Nationals, but Chinese Taipei’s Wang Kuan-hung, the silver medalist from two years ago, will be in the hunt as well.
Emma Weber is in lane 4 of the women’s 50 breaststroke final, but will need to watch out for Lara van Niekerk next to her in lane 3, just a tenth of a second behind. Van Niekerk owns a best of 29.75, the Commonwealth Record and fastest in the field, but has not broken 30 seconds so far this season. Canada’s Shona Branton was the 4th seed coming in and could be dangerous from lane 1.
Jake Mitchell and Baylor Nelson are in the centre lanes of the 200 freestyle, however with two other swimmers under 1:47 they will not have it all their own way tonight. Nikolai Kolesnikov in lane 3 was the 400 freestyle winner on Day 1, and Brazilian Kaique Alves, who swims for the University of Alabama, set a best time in both heats and semi-finals to add to a 47.96 split in the 4×100 free relay on Day 1. Australia’s Marcus da Silva, who also had a big split on that relay with a 47.73 anchor, will be in lane 1.
After taking 3rd in the 100 breaststroke last night, Ben Delmar is the top seed in tonight’s 200 breaststroke semi-finals after a swim of 2:11.05 this morning, just under a second off his best. Josh Bey will be in lane four in the other semi-final, with Aleksei Sudarev, the fastest swimmer coming into the heats, missing out in 17th by just 0.11 seconds.
Mila Nikanorov is the top seed of a tight women’s 800 free final, with all eight swimmers separated by just 2.03 seconds. Her teammate Kate Hurst, the top seed coming into the heats, squeaking into lane 8 and should provide some speed from the outside as her best is nearly 10 seconds faster than the time she went in the heats. Noemi Cesarano, the bronze medalist from Chengdu, will be in lane 6.
Once again it is an American in lane four, this time in the men’s 200 IM. Mitchell Schott stormed home in 28.0 last night to break 1:59 for the first time and take lane 4 for tonight, but he’s flanked by a pair of 1:57-point swimmers in Owen McDonald and Takumi Mori who could make it an interesting race tonight.
We finish things off tonight with the mixed medley relay, where the U.S. took top spot in the heats by nearly three seconds. They’ll swap out their full team for tonight, and should make it three-from-three in relays so far in Berlin
Top Seeds
- Women’s 100 free: Lisa Nowaczyk (FRA) – 54.42
- Men’s 100 back: Pieter Coetzee (RSA) – 54.42
- Women’s 100 back: Leah Shackley (USA) – 54.42
- Men’s 200 fly: Jack Dahlgren (USA) – 1:56.82
- Women’s 50 breast : Emma Weber (USA) – 30.53
- Men’s 200 free: Jake Mitchell (USA)– 1:46.45
- Men’s 200 breast: Ben Delmar (USA) – 2:11.05
- Women’s 800 free: Mia Nikanorov– 8:36.12
- Men’s 200 IM: Mitchell Schott– 1:58.95
