2025 World University Games
- July 17th-23rd, 2025
- Prelims: 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. EST)
- Finals: 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EST)
- Berlin, Germany
- LCM (50 Meters)
- Meet Central
- Entries List
- Live Results
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Men’s 800 Free Relay– FINAL
- World Record: 6:58.55- United States, 2009
- Junior World Record: 3:15.49- United States, 2019
World University Games Record: 7:05.49- Russia, 2013
Top 8 Teams:
- United States- 7:04.51 *WUG RECORD*
- Individual Neutral Athletes- 7:08.33
- Japan- 7:09.47
- Brazil- 7:12.01
- Italy- 7:13.83
- Malaysia- 7:19.66
- Australia- 7:20.20
- Switzerland- 7:25.78
The U.S. blew the field away in the relay tonight – sound familiar? – as they won their sixth relay from six and set yet another WUG Record. That was the fourth of the night broken by an American swimmer after Leah Shackley, Leah Hayes and Tess Howley set their own individual records earlier on tonight. 7:04.51 is a serious swim from the U.S. – it would have finalled at every World Championships and Olympics ever – and once again there were some big swims.
Leadoff Legs (Flat Start)
- Nikolai Kolesnikov, AIN – 1:46.02 (1)
- Mitchell Schott, USA – 1:46.06 (2)
- Takumi Mori, JPN – 1:47.36 (3)
- Khiew Hoe Yean, MAL – 1:48.11 (4)
- Simone Spediacci, ITA & Marcus da Silva, AUS – 1:48.46 (=5)
- –
- Eduardo Moraes, BRA – 1:48.60 (7)
- Tiago Behar, SUI – 1:49.27 (8)
Mitchell Schott may not quite have had the fastest leadoff leg, but he dropped another two-tenths from his best that he set this morning to take his total drop for the day to 1.73 seconds. He was out in 51.02 before coming home 55.04, with 200 free silver medalist Nikolai Kolesnikov (no, no relation to Kliment) storming home in 27.27 to just get the touch in 1:46.02.
Both of those times would have been good enough to win the individual event, where Kolesnikov was second in 1:46.77 to Jake Mitchell‘s 1:46.22.
Takumi Mori, the 200 IM champion who also delivered a 48.84 leadoff on the mixed 4×100 free relay last night, was 1:47.36 to set a new best time and put Japan into third by three-quarters of a second. He was incredibly consistent on his last three 50s, splitting 27.33/27.35/27.51.
Malaysia’s Khiew Hoe Yean, the 400 free silver medalist, moved them from 7th to 4th on the final 50 with a 27.43 split.
2nd Legs (Flying Start)
- Baylor Nelson, USA – 1:46.52 (1)
- Aleksandr Shchegolev, AIN – 1:46.78 (2)
- Kaique Alves, BRA – 1:46.81 (4)
- Konosuke Yanagimoto, JPN – 1:47.00 (3)
- Giovanni Caserta, ITA – 1:47.50 (5)
- Gabriel Gorgas, AUS – 1:48.23 (6)
- Arvin Chahal Singh, MAL – 1:48.87 (7)
- Mattia Mauri, SUI – 1:52.63 (8)
Aleksandr Shchegolev was out ahead of Baylor Nelson on the first 50, but the American steadily outsplit him on the next two lengths to put the U.S. in the lead by four tenths with 50 to go. Shchegolev closed slightly faster to reduce the gap the 0.22 seconds at the halfway point, with Japan not falling too far behind thanks to Konosuke Yanagimoto‘s 1:47.00 split, just off his flat start best of 1:46.84.
Kaique Alves was also under 1:47 on his leg for Brazil as they moved half a second ahead of Italy into 4th place. He was out in 50.50 on the first 100, fastest of anyone on this leg, although a 28.70 final 50 did drop him back from Japan slightly.
Giovanni Caserta, the 4th-place finisher in the individual 200, had the 5th-fastest split in 1:47.50, six tenths off his flat start time of 1:46.90.
3rd Legs (Flying Start)
- Jack Dahlgren, USA – 1:45.14 (1)
- Takaki Hara, JPN – 1:47.43 (3)
- Dmitrii Zhavoronkov, AIN – 1:47.47 (2)
- Leonardo Alcantara, BRA – 1:48.10 (4)
- Claudio Faraci, ITA – 1:48.96 (5)
- Yin Cheun Lim, MAL – 1:50.58 (6)
- Thomas Nankervis, AUS – 1:53.14 (7)
- Dominic Chtaini, SUI – 1:52.46 (8)
Jack Dahlgren take a bow. He split 1:45.7 at the 2023 Pan-American Games, so we knew he had a big split in him, but this was faster than most of the finals splits will be in Singapore next Friday. He put two and a half seconds on Dmitrii Zhavoronkov, turning a close race with AIN at halfway into a procession for Jake Mitchell on the anchor.
He was out fast in 50.44, but came home 27.29/27.41 to deliver the fastest split by over a second, and the fastest on this leg by more than two. His flying split tonight would have improved every relay swum in the last five years with the exception of two: Great Britain in 2021 and the U.S. in 2023.
Takaki Hara, who swam the 50 free earlier this session and has delivered some rapid 100 free splits at this meet, was the second-fastest on this leg as he doubled Japan’s advantage over Brazil in the battle for bronze.
4th Legs (Flying Start)
- Jake Mitchell, USA – 1:46.79 (1)
- Hiroto Shimizu, JPN – 1:47.68 (3)
- Aleksandr Stepanov, AIN – 1:48.06 (2)
- Gustavo Saldo, BRA – 1:48.50 (4)
- Davide Marchello, ITA – 1:48.91 (5)
- Stuart Swinburn, AUS – 1:50.37 (7)
- Daniil Sokolovskiy, SUI – 1:51.42 (8)
- Khai Xin Tan, MAL – 1:52.10 (6)
Jake Mitchell, despite being alone at the front of the race, still had the fastest anchor leg in 1:46.79, although that was half a second off his 1:46.22 from the individual final. He was out in 50.55 before coming home in 56.24, touching four seconds ahead of AIN and a second under Russia’s 2013 WUG Record.
Japan got their fourth top-four split with Hiroto Shimizu‘s 1:47.68 leg, which pulled them away from Brazil and gave them bronze by 2.54 seconds, as they ended up breaking 7:10 in 7:09.47.
Aleksandr Stepanov and Davide Marchello doubled up after swimming the 800 final earlier tonight, where Stepanov took gold in 7:46.51. His 1:48.06 split was the 3rd-fastest in the field on this leg and a full four and a half seconds faster than his flat start best from 2023.
Malaysia, despite having the slowest anchor leg, placed 6th in what was their highest WUG relay finish ever, and broke their National Record to boot. .
Notes
- The men’s 4×100 was close, but this relay was probably the best so far by Team USA. A huge best for Mitchell Schott, who has been quite frankly phenomenal this week both on relays and individually, and a massive split from Jack Dahlgren caught the eye, and if they had been in a battle down the stretch Jake Mitchell is without a doubt faster than his 1:46.79 anchor – which was still the fastest final leg by nearly a second. This was a world-finals-level swim tonight, and the U.S. is by far the deepest nation in the 200 free globally – Schott this morning became their 12th swimmer 1:46.5 or better this year. The battle for gold at Worlds this year will be an epic showdown with Great Britain, but for 2027 and 2028 the U.S. may well be the only nation on top of the mountain.
- Japan had yet another quality relay, winning their third relay medal of the meet. Takaki Hara looks a useful relay piece in both the 100 and 200, and Takumi Mori is yet another IM specialist who can cross over into freestyle. With more relaxed qualification standards for international competitions now in place, look for them to get chances at 2026 Pan Pacs and the 2027 World Champs.
- Malaysia were 0.06 seconds off their National Record this morning, but got the job done tonight as they touched in 7:19.66, 0.09 seconds inside the mark set previously at the 2022 SEA Games. Khiew Hoe Yean and Arvin Chahal Singh were on that relay, but were both faster tonight, Singh by two seconds and Khiew by 0.71 despite switching from anchor to leadoff. After Khiew won Malaysia’s first-ever swimming medal at the World University Games on Day 1 with silver in the 400 free, again in a National Record, the future is looking bright.
