2025 Worlds, Day 4 Asia Recap: Li Bingjie’s 200 Free Silver Has Relay Implications

2025 World Championships

The women’s 200m freestyle final was among day four’s events at the 2025 World Championships with Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan reaping gold in a time of 1:53.48.

Behind her was Chinese ace Li Bingjiewith the 23-year-old Olympian snagging silver in 1:54.52 ahead of American Claire Weinstein who secured bronze in 1:54.67.

For Li, her performance tonight was a redemption of sorts from finishing 4th and off the podium in the women’s 1500m free last night in Singapore.

In that grueling distance race, Li registered a time of 15:49.54 to finish just off the podium.

Winning the 1500m free event was American Olympic icon Katie Ledecky who struck gold in 15:26.44, followed by Italy’s Simona Quadarella (15:31.79) and Australia’s Lani Pallister (15:41.18).

Li’s time of 1:54.52 in tonight’s 200m free checks in as a monster new personal best, easily overtaking the 1:55.52 notched at the Chinese Nationals this past March. That hacked a second off her previous PB en route to giving China another piece of hardware.

Li’s performance bodes well for the Chinese women’s 4x200m free relay, which begins tomorrow.

China earned bronze in that event last year at the 2024 Olympic Games. Li was indeed a member of that relay, producing a 2nd leg split of 1:55.05.

Now that she’s entered sub-1:55 territory on the individual level, it may mean that China may do more damage than originally thought in the relay. We’ll have to see what transpires during the heats.

WOMEN’S 200 FREESTYLE – FINAL

  • World Record: 1:52.23 – Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 2024
  • World Junior Record: 1:53.65 – Summer McIntosh (CAN), 2023
  • Championship Record: Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – 1:52.85
  • 2023 World Champion: Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – 1:52.85
  • 2024 Olympic Champion: Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – 1:53.27
  1. Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 1:53.48
  2. Li Bingjie (CHN), 1:54.52
  3. Claire Weinstein (USA), 1:54.67
  4. Freya Colbert (GBR), 1:55.06
  5. Barbora Seemanova (CZE), 1:55.20
  6. Erika Fairweather (NZL), 1:55.61
  7. Jamie Perkins (AUS), 1:56.55
  8. Erin Gemmell (USA), 2:00.16

Asian National/Continental Records

  • Li Bingjie, Women’s 400m freestyle (3:58.21) – Chinese & Asian Records
  • Ching Hwee Gan, Women’s 400m freestyle (4:09.82) – Singapore Record; Women’s 800m freestyle (8:29.93) – Singapore Record; Women’s 1500m free (16:01.29) – Singapore Record
  • Denis Petrashov, Men’s 100m breaststroke (58.88) – Kyrgyzstani Record
  • Samiul Islam Rafi, Men’s 100m backstroke (58.36) – Bangladeshi Record
  • Enkhatmir Batbayar, Men’s 200m freestyle (1:50.26) – Mongolian Record; Men’s 100m backstroke (57.25) – Mongolian Record
  • Chen Juner, Men’s 200m butterfly (1:54.02) – Chinese Record

Asian Medal Table Through Day Four of 2025 World Championships

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 1 3 2 6
2 Japan 0 0 1 1
2 South Korea 0 0 1 1
2 Krgyzstan 0 0 1 1

 

Overall Swimming Medal Table Through Day Three of 2025 World Championships

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1
Australia
4 1 3 8
2 U.S. 3 5 4 12
3 Germany 2 1 1 4
4 Canada 2 0 2 4
5 Italy 1 4 1 6
6 China 1 3 2 6
7 NAB 1 1 0 2
8 France 1 0 1 2
9 Romania 1 0 0 1
9 South Africa 1 0 0 1
9 Tunisia 1 0 0 1
12 Belgium 0 1 0 1
12 Poland 0 1 0 1
12 Switzerland 0 1 0 1
15 Japan 0 0 1 1
15 Kyrgyzstan 0 0 1 1
15 South Korea 0 0 1 1
15 Netherlands 0 0 1 1

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4 Comments
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Tuấn
10 months ago

Beautiful

Alice
10 months ago

“China earned silver in that event last year at the 2024 Olympic Games”

think this needs to be corrected😁

Thomas The Tank Engine
Reply to  Alice
10 months ago

Ledecky:

Are you kidding me?

Tencor
10 months ago

Has 100-1500 range and 6 individual world silver medals. Definitely underrated imo, even if she’s a bit inconsistent from year to year.

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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