2025 World University Games: Day 7 Men’s Relay Analysis

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
• Livestream
• 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

Men’s 400 Medley Relay–FINAL

• World Record: 3:26.78- United States (2021)
• Junior World Record: 3:33.19- Russia (2019)
• World University Games Record: 3:32.58- China (2023)

Top 8 Finishers:

1. United States- 3:33.59
2. Italy- 3:34.70
3. Japan- 3:34.97
4. Individual Neutral Athletes- 3:36.18
5. Poland- 3:36.32
6. Germany- 3:36.47
7. Brazil- 3:41.62

DSQ: United Kingdom

The U.S. made it eight wins from eight in the relay events here at the World University Games, although this one did come down to the final 100 meters. Japan and Italy ended up just over a second back, although Matt King blew the field away with a world-class anchor leg.

Japan may have found yet another star breaststroker for the future in Reo Okura, and Gianmarco Sansone could become the answer to Italy’s butterfly woes, but they weren’t the only notable swims we saw.

Leadoff Legs (Flat Start)

1. Will Modglin, USA – 53.40(1)
2. Pietro Ubertalli, ITA – 54.27 (2)
3. Aleksei Tkachev, AIN – 54.47 (3)
4. Cornelius Jahn, GER –  54.89 (4)
5. Yuga Nishimura, JPN – 55.00 (5)
6. Aleksander Sienkiewicz, POL – 55.56 (6)
7. Pedro de Souze, BRA – 55.98 (7)
8. Alexander Casey, GBR – 56.49 (8)

With no South Africa in this final, it was left to the 100 backstroke silver medalist Will Modglin to pace the field in 53.40. that is nearly a second slower than he was in the individual final and half a second off the 52.84 he swam on the mixed medley leadoff, but was still enough to give the U.S. a 0.87 second lead heading into the breaststroke.

Pietro Ubertalli  nearly matched his best of 54.14 and delivered his quickest swim off the week for Italy, as he touched out AIN’s Aleksei Tkachev by two-tenths. Cornelius Jahn of Germany was the only other man to break 55 seconds, with Japan’s Yuga Nishimura adding more than half a second from the 54.42 he went individually.

2nd Legs (Flying Start)

1. Reo Okura, JPN – 59.38 (3)
2. Alessandro Fusco, ITA – 59.79 (2)
3. Ben Delmar, USA – 59.83 (1)
4. Dawid Wiekiera – 1:00.03 (5)
5. Aleksei Sudarev, AIN – 1:00.92 (4)
6. Guilherme Camossato, BRA – 1:00.60 (7)
7. Jeremias Pock, GER – 1:01.23

*Archie Goodburn, GBR – 1:00.84 (8) *DQ, -0.08 RT

Ben Delmar and Dawid Wiekiera may have medalled individually in this event but it was a swimmer who missed out on the final who had the best swim on this leg. Reo Okura, who finished 10th in the semifinals in 1:00.98, dropped more than a second and a half to split 59.38, fastest in the field by four-tenths. Almost all of that improvement came on the first 50 – he split 27.44/31.94 compared to his individual 28.97/32.01.

Delmar was also sub-60 in 59.83, just off the 59.80 he went individually but faster than the 1:00.08 he went on the mixed medley, to keep the U.S. in 1st. Italy’s Alessandro Fusco, who finished 5th individually after leading semifinals in a new best of 59.95, had the second-fastest split in 59.79.

The lack of a specialist breaststroker for AIN cost them here, as they gave up over a second to their podium rivals Italy and Japan. Great Britain’s Archie Goodburn was disqualified after jumping eight-hundredths early.

3rd Legs (Flying Start)

1. Gianmarco Sansone, ITA – 51.69 (1)
2. Adrian Jaskiewicz, POL – 51.83 (4)
3. Bjoern Kamman, GER & Riku Kitagawa, JPN – 52.12 (6) & (3)
4. –
5. Aleksandr Shchegolev, AIN – 52.79 (5)
6. Kamal Muhammad, USA – 52.89 (2)
7. Gustavo Saldo, BRA – 54.99 (8)

*Brodie Gordon-Gibson, GBR – 53.78, GBR DQ leg 2

Kamal Muhammad was out in 23.88, but faded hard on the second 50 to give up 1st place to Italian Gianmarco Sansone, who won the 100 fly yesterday. He was slightly off his time of 51.40 from that final, but still delivered the fastest split in the field as he roared home in 27.57, 1.44 seconds faster than Muhammad’s 29.01. Notably, Matt Klinge was eight-tenths faster n the morning relay for Team USA.

Adrian Jaskiewicz split 52.03 on the mixed medley relay earlier in the meet and broke 52 seconds tonight. He was 52.48 in the individual 100 fly, so was 0.65 seconds faster on the relay here to bring Poland up to 4th, within a second of 3rd-place Japan. Silver medalist from the individual event Bjoern Kamman was 52.12 for Germany, four-tenths off his best, as they remained 6th.

Aleksandr Shchegolev, who is primarily a freestyler, split 52.79 for AIN. He was out fastest of anyone in 23.75, but then came home slowest in the field in 29.04

4th Legs (Flying Start)

1. Matt King, USA – 47.47 (1)
2. Dmitrii Zhavoronkov, AIN – 48.00 (4)
3. Ole Eidam, GER – 48.23 (6)
4. Takaki Hara, JPN –  48.47 (3)
5. Dominik Dudys, POL – 48.90 (5)
6. Lorenzo Dato, ITA – 48.95 (2)
7. Theo Alloza, BRA – 50.05 (7)

*Maddox Roberts – 23.30 first 50, GBR DQ on leg 2

Matt King dived in second on the anchor for the U.S., but a 22.26 first 50 erased the deficit within 50 meters. He split 25.21 coming home for a swim of 47.47, outsplitting the rest of the field by half a second and delivering the fastest split of the meet. He won his sixth gold of the meet, and ended up winning the race by more than a second and swimming his fourth-fastest relay split ever behind a trio of 47.3 splits from worlds in 2023 and 2024.

Dmitrii Zhavoronkov very nearly made it two 47-point splits with a 48.00, but had too much of a gap to Japan to bridge. Takaki Hara swam his slowest finals split of the meet in 48.47, but was only 0.27 seconds away from catching Lorenzo Dato for silver.

A 48.23 for Mats Eidam rounds off what has been a strong week for the German swimmer. He has set personal bests in the 50 and 100 of both free and fly, and thrown down some splits that should see him given a chance at Europeans next year.

Notes

• Although his relay did not have the fireworks of the men’s 4×200 free last night, Matt King‘s split just highlights the 100 free depth that the U.S. has right now.  He was only 10th at U.S. Nationals, relegated to the ‘B’ final, but was sub-47.5 here – realistically good enough to be on almost any 4×100 free relay ever. The U.S. still has four men in Singapore who are equal to or better than that – Jack Alexy (46.99 FS), Patrick Sammon (47.47 FS), Chris Guiliano (4725 FS) and Jonny Kulow (47.44 split) – and should be hot favorites to win not only their first 4×100 free relay without Caeleb Dressel since 2009 in Singapore, but continue to dominate the event in years to come.
• Another breaststroker who looks ready for the big leagues from Japan, who earlier today had Shin Ohashi set a World Junior Record of 58.94 in the 100. Reo Okura won silver in the 50 and finished 10th in the 100,  but outsplit two of the men who beat him in the 100 by around half a second tonight. After showcasing their IM strength in the previous men’s event, this was yet another solid relay for the Japanese men to add their third relay medal in three relays.
• Italy had some promising signs for their senior relay, as a couple more depth pieces surfaced here. Gianmarco Sansone and Michele Busa are viable relay heats swimmers at the world level, and Pietro Ubertalli showed that his big drop of more than a second at Italian Trials was not a fluke with his fourth sub-54.5 swim in Berlin. Alessandro Fusco is yet another sub-60 breaststroker for them, and while Lorenzo Dato couldn’t match his 48.20 split from Day 1 he looks well placed to step into a future relay role much as Paolo Conte Bonin, now an Olympic bronze medalist, did after his performances at this meet two years ago.
• The emergence of Ole Eidam this week has been a boon for Germany, and his freestyle split here added to his big fly splits of 51.35 and 51.45 from earlier in the week. Germany set a National Record in the 4×100 free relay in Paris, and  he was faster here than Luca Armbruster (48.43) was on the third leg there. With Joshua Salchow looking even better this year after breaking the 100 free National Record last summer and Kaii Winkler also progressing, they could be a medal contender at the European Championships in the 4×100 free next year.