2025 World University Games
- July 17th-23rd, 2025
- Berlin, Germany
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We are onto the penultimate finals session of the World University Games here in Berlin, and we have a bumper schedule of 12 events this evening. The U.S. hold an almost unassailable lead in the medal table already, but can make that official tonight.
We kick off with the men’s 100 fly, where Michele Busa is the big favorite after leading the field by half a second in yesterday’s semifinals. He set a new best of 51.52, his first swim under 52 seconds, and after Simone Stefani won the 50 fly on Day 2 will be gunning for an Italian sprint butterfly sweep.
The field is separated by just 0.32 seconds behind him, with Ole Eidam (52.03) in pole position for silver after splits of 51.35 and 51.45 on the mixed medley relay. Gianluca Sansone (52.07) and Bjoern Kamman (52.24) join their teammates in the middle of the pool
The swimmer with the second-fastest 100 fly time yesterday, Kamal Muhammad, will not be in this final. He swam 51.90 in a swim-off with Thomas Nankervis for first reserve, which would have been good enough for the second seed.
Two U.S. swimmers bookend the women’s 100 free finalists, with Cavan Gormsen in lane 4 and Isabel Ivey in lane 8. Ivey had the fastest split on the 4×200 free relay earlier in the week with a time of 1:57.23, but was only 1:59.25 in the semifinals
Portugal’s Francisca Martins, who split 54.78 on the mixed free relay last night, is the second seed in 1:58.49, just ahead of 100 freestyle champion Ai Yanhan (1:58.59) and Lucile Tessariol (1:58.59). Florida’s Julie Brousseau (1:58.99) will be in lane 2 for Canada.
Aleksandr Stepanov, the champion in a thrilling 1500 two days ago, will be in lane 5 of the men’s 800 free final tonight. Tommaso Griffante was the only swimmer to break 8:00 in the heats with his swim of 7:55.78, although Stepanov has been as fast as 7:49 before. Ryan Erisman is in lane 7 for the U.S., eight seconds off his best of 7:54.64 set at U.S. Nationals, and will try to add to the bronze he won in the 400 on Day 1.
Leah Shackley and Kennedy Noble will face of for the third time in a backstroke final, with each having one win to their name so far, Shackley winning the 200 while Noble took the 100, both in WUG Records. Shackley set another one of those in the semifinals to take lane 4 in 27.66, with Noble just behind in 27.81.
They are joined under 28 seconds by South Africa’s Olivia Nel (27.96), who set the National and Continental Record last night, and her teammate Michaela de Villier’s is in lane 6 after going 28.00 to also dip under the previous record. Adela Piskorska, the winner in Chengdu two years ago, is the fifth seed in 28.14.
David King (1:58.53) and Daniel Diehl (1:58.92) will swim in lanes 4 and 5 in the second semifinal of the men’s 200 back tonight, with Aleksei Tkachev (1:58.90) also under 1:59 this morning. Diehl has won bronze at both the backstroke distances he has raced so far in Berlin, and owns the fastest best time in this field.
The two U.S. swimmers dominated their respective semi-finals in the 200 IM yesterday, and Leah Hayes and Teagan O’Dell will be in the centre lanes for tonight’s final. Hayes looks in her best form since winning bronze at the 2022 World Championships and broke the Universiade Record by two-hundredths last night, so look for her to dip under 2:10 and do so again.
Emma Weber is the top seed in the women’s 100 breast in 1:07.65, a second and a half off her best, while South Africa’s Simone Moll clipped her best by two-hundredths in 1:07.87 to take the second seed. Moll’s teammate Lara van Niekirk, who has been 1:05.47 before, is the 5th seed after going 1:08.92 this morning.
Japan’s gold and silver medalists from the 200 last night, Yumeno Kusuda and Yuyumi Obatake, made it through to the semi-finals tonight in 6th and 15th.
Matt King was the fastest swimmer in the men’s 50 free this morning in 22.16, the top the swimmers separated by just a third of a second. Daniel Baltes will swim next to his teammate out of lane 3 in the second semifinal, and Aleksandr Schegolev and Patrick Dinu, 3rd and 4th on the 100, will be in the first semifinal tonight.
Germany’s Ole Eidam is the only man swimming the 100 fly/50 free double tonight, and dropped two tenths this morning to rank 8th into the semifinals.
Federico Rizzardi leads the men’s 50 breaststroke finalists in 27.28, with Nate Germonprez and Dawid Wiekiera, 4th and 2nd respectively in the 100, in lanes 2 and 7. Archie Goodburn is in lane 8 for Great Britain, who are still yet to win a medal this week.
Tess Howley clipped her best in 2:06.75 in the women’s 200 fly heats, as teammate Lindsay Looney joined her as the only other swimmer under 2:10. Great Britain’s Ciara Schlosshan was 3rd-fastest this morning in 2:10.44, and will aim for a centre lane for tomorrow’s final.
Julia Dennis is the top seed in the final individual event of the night after swimming 24.88 to Maxine Parker‘s 24.96 in the heats, as no one else swam better than a 25.3. Those two will be the favorites to take lanes 4 and 5 for the final, but South Africa’s Olivia Nel (25.39) has been on fire so far this week and will be dangerous from semifinal 1, in which Cyprus’s Kalia Antoniou, the bronze medalist from two years ago, will also swim
The U.S. men ran away with the heats of the 4×200 free this morning, taking a lead of nearly ten seconds into tonight’s final. Mitchell Schott dropped a second and a half from his three-week-old best time to lead off in 1:46.23, a huge swim would have won the individual event.
The man who did win there, Jake Mitchell, will team up with Schott, Baylor Nelson and Jack Dahlgren, with the WUG record of 7:05.49, set by Russia at Kazan 2013, in serious danger of being toppled.
Malaysia were 0.06 seconds off their national record this morning as they battled Russia for three-quarters of the race, and will be in lane 2 tonight. Hoe Yean Khiew won Malaysia’s first ever medal in swimming at the World University Games when he took silver in the 400 free in a Malaysian Record on Day 1, so they will look to bookend the meet with even more national success
Top Seeds
- Men’s 100 fly: Michele Busa (ITA) – 51.52
- Women’s 200 free: Cavan Gormsen (USA) – 1:58.22
- Men’s 800 free: Tommaso Griffante (ITA) – 7:55.78
- Women’s 50 back: Leah Shackley (USA) – 27.66
- Women’s 200 IM: Leah Hayes (USA) – 2:10.01
- Men’s 50 breast: Federico Rizzardi (ITA) – 27.28
Can Italy send Busa to worlds?
He got 4th
45 minutes to start of the finals!