2025 World Championships: Day 6 Finals Preview

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
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

Here we go again, round six. Tonight is a sprint fan’s delight, with four 50/100 events that have tons of overlap and no swims above a 200.

Day 6 Finals Heat Sheet

Day 6 Finals Event Line-Up

• Women’s 100 free final
• Men’s 100 fly semis
• Women’s 200 back semis
• Men’s 50 free semis
• Men’s 200 breast final
• Men’s 200 back final
• Women’s 200 breast final
• Women’s 50 fly semis
• Men’s 4×200 free relay

Mollie O’Callaghan starts us off strong. Only one woman has ever doubled up on the 100 free and 200 free in the same LC worlds: O’Callaghan in 2023. Tonight, she comes in as the #2 seed, only .01 behind top seed Marrit Steenbergen, the 2024 World Champion. It won’t be easy, but O’Callaghan has a shot to pick up the historic double again. Olympic Champion Torri Huske was in the best shape we’ve seen her all week in the semis, so keep an eye out for what she can do as well.

After that, we’re in for a bloodbath in the men’s 100 fly if this morning (and other men’s sprint events in Singapore) is any indication. Even with several top names missing, the entire entire top 16, save one, got under 51.5. The Canadian duo that swept the minor medals in Paris, Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun, have spots in the top five. Leading the pack is Swiss Noe Ponti, who already picked up silver in the 50 fly earlier in the week.

In the next event, the women’s 200 back, we’ll see the usual suspects of Kaylee McKeown and Regan Smith. McKeown posted the top time of the morning (2:08.01) A new bombshell has entered the villa in Hungarian Dora Molnar, who came from an outside lane to grab 2nd seed with a new 2:08.53 best time.

At the age of 27, Serbian Andrej Barna is having a stunning ascension, dropping his 50 free best time from this year down another three tenths to earn the top seed for the event’s semis. He’s somewhat of a spoiler to look out for among veterans and favorites like Cameron McEvoy, Jack Alexy, and Ben Proud. 

Less than a second separated the top seven out of the men’s 200 breaststroke semis. It’s impossible to pick a favorite, but Ippei Watanabe made it out of each of the first two rounds in the top two and is having his best meet in years. The former world record holder, Watanabe hasn’t won a major international medal in the 2020s yet. Tonight could be his chance. Watanabe and AJ Pouch were the semi-final winners last night, and Pouch has a shot at getting the U.S. men their second gold of the meet.

Like the 200 breast, the men’s 200 back is also tightly bunched up. In one of the event’s deepest semi-finals ever, Pieter Coetze of South Africa posted the top time at 1:54.22. No backstroker has had a better month than Coetze, highlighted by his 100 back gold a few days ago. To repeat, he’ll likely need to go a best time and hold off top European names such as Hubert Kos (2024 Olympic Champion) and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard.

The women’s 200 breaststroke is set to be one of the best heavyweight duels of the entire week. World record holder Evgeniia Chikunova and 2024 Olympic Champion Kate Douglass put themselves a cut above the rest through the first two rounds, each posting 2:20s. Glue your eyes to the center of the pool as the two heavyweights gun for sub-2:20 and a win in their first head-to-head long course swim in the event.

To close out the individual swims, we finish with two quick women’s 50 fly semifinal heats. Douglass will be put to the test with back-to-back events. Thankfully for the American, she will take the second heat after tying for 4th in the heats with Russia’s Arina Surkova. Leading the way this morning were the same two women leading the world rankings coming into the meet: Gretchen Walsh and Alexandria Perkins.

Moving pieces make it difficult to anticipate, but the 4×200 free relay looks like it’ll be an entertaining Britain vs U.S. battle to close out night six. Great Britain turned in the top time of the morning, in part thanks to a nearly one-second best time by Jack McMillan. He and James Guy, who split 1:44 this morning, will likely join Duncan Scott and Matt Richards to form an all-star squad that will set the pace tonight. The Americans should respond strongly with strong 200 performances from Henry McFadden and Luke Hobson thus far. The U.S. coaches have several other options to round out the relay, and the choosing strategy could make the difference between a men’s relay gold in Singapore or not. If this showdown wasn’t enough, then the thrill of a potential world class Leon Marchand 200 free split is sure to add entertainment to the final.