2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- How To Watch
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Entry Book
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
MEN’S 200 FREESTYLE – Semifinals
- World Record: 1:42.00 – Paul Biedermann, GER (2009)
- World Junior Record: 1:42.97 – David Popovici, ROU (2022)
- Championship Record: 1:42.00 – Paul Biedermann, GER (2009)
- 2023 World Champion: Matt Richards, GBR – 1:44.30
- 2024 Olympic Champion: David Popovici, ROU – 1:44.72
Top 8 Qualifiers:
- Luke Hobson (United States) — 1:44.80
- Hwang Sunwoo (South Korea) — 1:44.84
- Kamil Sieradzki (Poland) — 1:45.00
- David Popovici (Romania) — 1:45.02
- Carlos D’Ambrosio (Italy) — 1:45.23
- Tatsuya Murasa (Japan) — 1:45.39
- James Guy (Great Britain) — 1:45.50
- Gabriel Jett (United States) — 1:45.60
Great Britain’s Matt Richards, the World Champion in the 200 free at the 2023 world championships, missed the final in the event tonight after placing 12th in the semi-finals in 1:45.85.
Richards looked comfortable this morning as he progressed 3rd out of the heats in 1:45.66, but added nearly two-tenths tonight as he left himself too much to do down the final 50.
The Brit was long into the wall at the halfway mark and flipped in just 51.49 in what overall was a much slower second semi-final. He was 27.50 down the third length to hit the 150 in 1:18.99, three-quarters of a second down on the majority of the previous heat and just fourth in his semi-final.
A final 50 of 26.86 was not enough to drag him back into the top eight overall, as he missed out by 0.25 seconds. Gabriel Jett of the U.S. was the 8th-place finished in 1:45.60, just under a second off his season best of 1:44.70.
Richards’ teammate James Guy did make it through to tomorrow’s final in 7th place after a swim of 1:45.50, but Great Britain’s hold over the 4×200 free relay seems a little shakier than it did two days ago.
USA Now The 4×200 Free Favorites?
Tom Dean, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist and a worlds medalist in 2022 and 2023, took some time off this fall and did not swim the 200 free at British Trials. He has a season-best of 1:48.05 from the Sette Colli, but looked out of form in the heats of the men’s 4×100 free relay yesterday morning.
He anchored that relay in just 48.68, 0.28 seconds off his season best of 48.40. He was dropped for the final as the team set a British Record of 3:10.73 and finished in 4th.
With Richards missing the final in the 200 free and James Guy fading to a final 50 of 27.70 in the heats and 27.65 in the semi-finals, the U.S. could be the new favorite. They were the only nation to put two men through to the final here, as Luke Hobson (1:44.80, 1st) and Gabriel Jett (1:45.60, 8th) made the top eight.
The other main contenders, Korea and Australia, had a miss apiece in the heats. Australian Ed Sommerville, who swam 1:44.93 at Australian Trials, was just 1:46.72 to finish 17th this morning, and Korea’s Lee Hojoon was just 55.53 on the second 100 to finish 21st in 1:47.43.
Lee has split 1:44.53 before for Korea on the relay, and they would need a similar performance to have any chance of challenging for gold. Hwang Sunwoo was 1:44.84 to qualify 2nd into the final, but they will need all four swimmers to be on if they wish to fulfil their stated aim of breaking the World Record.
Australia have a multitude of swimmers in the 1:45-high/1:46-low range, but Sommerville was the man looking most likely to provide the game-changing split they would need to dip under seven minutes and challenge for more than bronze.
He did rebound after just missing out on progressing to the final at short course worlds in the event, splitting 1:41.03 on the Oceanian-Record-setting relay after going 1:42.87 individually, and after Max Giuliani, Kai Taylor and Flynn Southam threw down fantastic swims on the 4×100 free relay last night Australia may be best placed along with the U.S. right now for the 4×200 relay.
Southam clipped his best by five-hundredths tonight, finishing 10th in 1:45.80.
The questions for the U.S. will be around the form of Henry McFadden, who we have not yet seen swim in Singapore, and Rex Maurer. The latter was 3:46.38 in the 400 free yesterday, more than three seconds off his best from U.S. Nationals.
While Chris Giuliano looked solid with a 47.43 split on the 4×100 free relay last night and is another option for the U.S., Luka Mijatovic looked well off the pace in the 400 free and was likely one of the victims of the food poisoning that affected the U.S. team at their prep camp in Thailand.
The U.S. has moved ahead by standing still, but may need to up the pace soon to keep their status as favorites.
Potential Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Legs: Performances So Far In Singapore
| Nation | Swimmer | 400 free – heats | 4×100 free relay – heats | 400 free – heats | 4×100 free relay – final | 200 free heats | 200 free semi-finals |
| USA | Luke Hobson | 1:44.80 | |||||
| Gabe Jett | 1:45.60 | ||||||
| Rex Maurer | 3:46.38 | ||||||
| Henry McFadden | |||||||
| Chris Guiliano | 47.43 | ||||||
| GB | James Guy | 1:46.19 | 1:45.50 | ||||
| Matt Richards | 47.23 | 1:45.66 | 1:45.85 | ||||
| Duncan Scott | 47.32 | ||||||
| Tom Dean | 48.68 | ||||||
| Jack McMillan | 3:47.28 (PB) | ||||||
| Korea | Hwang Sunwoo | 1:46.12 | 1:44.84 (SB) | ||||
| Kim Woomin | 3:44.99 | 3:42.60 (SB) | |||||
| Lee Hojoon | 1:47.36 | ||||||
| Kim Youngbeom | |||||||
| Australia | Ed Sommerville | 1:46.72 | |||||
| Max Giuliani | 48.08 | 47.63 | |||||
| Kai Taylor | 47.55 | 47.04 | |||||
| Flynn Southam | 48.12 (FS) | 1:46.00 | 1:45.80 (PB) | ||||
| Elijah Winnington | 3:46.37 |
Or it’s the new training regime they are being made to do in all the National centres. Apparently they have all changed to Olbrek training like Steve Tigg did with Duncan, only problem is he is use to it been doing it along time. The other centres were made to start doing it January just gone! Will have to wait and see!!
I told you GB 4 x 200 is on the decline. They will not even be close to breaking 7:00
The real news is my hero and savior Jimmy Guy making it back for finals swim 10 (yes TEN) years after winning Kazan 2015
Dude has been going 1:45 for a decade+ and still right on his PB. And in that time Deano and Matty rich have washed up
USA 4×200 relay still has Foster as an option as well — difficult to predict who’d be left off
I can’t believe G. Jett snuck into the final.
Do I hear outside smoke?? 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
Did it in Paris too but got away with it. Hopefully, will learn now not to cruise through semis and make sure you’re getting the win/top 2 in your heat. If we hadn’t had the stupid policy of auto-selecting the Paris medalists we wouldn’t have had this problem.
USA definitely favourites but think GB can’t be counted out of the 4×2. McMillan and Scott looked good yesterday and I think Richards is in good shape too, just a poorly executed plan. Guy a little off his PB but not too much.
Yeah, 1.45.4 and 1.45.6 in Fukuoka and Paris, finishing 3rd and 4th in his SF each time but snuck into the final both times. He got it wrong this time, slow semi killed him but he is in top shape imo.
USA will win.
Yes
Hopes for the USA 800 free relay have certainly risen after these results