2025 World Championships: Eight Takeaways From The Men’s 4×200 Free Relay

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 | Day 7 | Day 8
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Australia’s Relay Pieces Step Up Big Time, Again

Kai Taylor and Max Giuliani did not have the best meet at this year’s Australian Trials, but both had fantastic swims on Day 1 in the 4×100 free relay. They repeated the trick here as they each split under 1:45, giving Australia just their second and third splits under that mark since the Tokyo Olympics.

Australia got great swims from all four legs here. Flynn Southam really stepped up on the world stage both individually and on relays, and was 1:45.85 to just miss his newly-minted best of 1:45.80. Charlie Hawke, after going 1:45.83 in the morning, dropped more time to go 1:45.57, half a second under his flat start best of 1:46.10.

It was the second half of the race that kicked into overdrive. Australia were one of six teams in this final to negative split their race, but were the only one to have both splits on the back half under 1:45, thanks to Taylor and Giuliani.

Australia were seen as a contender for bronze, but without the ceiling of someone like Korea. As it were, they look primed to defend their Commonwealth title next summer and will be a tricky opponent for the U.S. at Pan Pacs, before going for a seventh medal in a row at 2027 Worlds.

Even with no individual finalists and no swimmer with a season-best under 1:45.80, Australia came within 0.13 seconds of the Oceanian Record from 2019, where Mack Horton anchored them to gold. With Ed Sommerville, who just set a new best in short course, having a year of international experience under his belt and a best of 1:44.93, they could be the next team to break seven minutes.

Is Kim Woomin Korea’s Most Important Piece On This Relay?

Korea has three swimmers whose spots are solidified as legs 2, 3, and 4 on this relay, all of whom are capable of splitting at least 1:44-mid. Kim Woomin, Lee Hojoon and Hwang Sunwoo all have splits 1:44.5 or better under their belt, but they have struggled to put together their best swims at the same time.

Kim Woomin is not the reason for that – he has been under the 1:45 mark in every one of his last five finals: the 2023 World Championships, 2023 Asian Games, 2024 World Championships, 2024 Olympics, and 2025 World Championships.

While Lee and Hwang can both boast at least one sub-1:45 split from those meets, they have never both done so in the same race. Korea has had, at most, two of the three 1:44-point-or-better splits it needs in any given final. Hwang, surprisingly, has only provided one in those five finals.

The swim last night was the sparsest of the five recent finals for Korea in terms of these splits, with Kim the only one of these three swimmers to deliver one.

He has won medals in the 400 free at three major meets in a row now, making him the joint-most decorated active Korean swimmer in individual events right now. With his consistency on this relay, which has only really been matched by Duncan Scott and Kieran Smith recently, is it time to build this team around him rather than Hwang Sunwoo?

Duncan Scott Is So Freaking Clutch

A question I’m sure the last topic left you with is: ‘just how good has Duncan Scott been on this relay then?’. 

Superlatively good.

Kim’s five 1:44s is incredible. Kieran Smith’s four in a row, including a leadoff, is phenomenal. Here are Duncan Scott‘s season-best splits across the last nine years.

• 2016 – 1:45.05
• 2017 – 1:44.60
• 2018 – 1:44.82
• 2019 – 1:44.91 (leadoff)
• 2021 – 1:43.45 (#3 all-time)
• 2022 – 1:44.48
• 2023 – 1:45.42 (leadoff)
• 2024 – 1:43.95 (#13 all-time)
• 2025 – 1:43.82 (#9 all-time)

That is three 1:43s, four 1:44s including one leadoff, and two 1:45s, one leadoff and one 1:45-flat. There is a reason he has eight World, Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals from this relay.

Scott was first on this relay for Great Britain back in 2015, swimming in the heats for the GB team that took gold behind a 1:44.74 split from James Guy, which kickstarted a decade of success in the event. The longevity is impressive – Guy is the only swimmer from that 2016 Olympic 4×200 free final, Scott’s first, who was at this world championships*.

With three 1:43-point anchors in four years – more than anyone else, ever – all of which have led to gold medals, Scott is the best anchor in the world and in my opinion the best in history. He may describe his role as to merely ‘float home’, but in practice he does a heck of a lot more than that.

*That is not to say that there are not swimmers still around who have featured before then – Wang Shun was on China’s relay this year, 14 years after leading off on his debut at the 2011 World Championships.

Great Britain Go Five In A Row

This is not about gold medals, as their streak recently is broken up by the U.S.’ gold in 2022, but about the anchor leg. We just mentioned Duncan Scott splitting 1:43-point three times in five years, but in 2022 and 2023 it was his teammate Tom Dean who brought this relay home.

Dean split 1:43-point both of those years, 1:43.53 to drag Great Britain to bronze in 2022 and 1:43.84 to hold off Kieran Smith and win gold in 2023. That means that every year since 2021 inclusive, they have had their anchor leg sub-1:44. With only 13 splits under that barrier in history, that is a phenomenal trump card to play.

This almost seems to be part of their tactics. For the last three years their lead heading into the final leg has been half a second or less, before stretching out to 0.94, 1.35 and 1.07 seconds respectively. Being safe in the knowledge that no one else can match whichever swimmer anchors must be a great feeling for the first three swimmers.

China Is Inconsistent But When They Turn Up, The World Notices

China has won just a single gold medal ever in this event, and that came at the under-represented 2024 World Championships.

They won bronze in 2011, 2012, and 2013, but then went through a ten year period where they did not make the podium. Their results over the last decade and a half have swung wildly as well.

This year, they turned up, setting a new Asian Record by nearly a second in 7:00.91 and winning silver. They had two 1:44-point splits, from Pan Zhanle and 18-year-old Zhang Zhanshuo, who was 1.63 seconds under flat start best on the anchor to go 1:44.20.

Wang Shun, Pan Xhanle, and Ji Xinjie have not been models of consistency on this relay, but Zhang has now split 1:45.80, 1:45.37 and 1:44.20 in China’s last three finals. He is their most important swimmer in this event right now

Pan does perform better on this relay than he does individually and, although another 200 free specialist would be ideal, this team can be contenders if they swim at their best. Being a little more consistent with that than they have been previously could see them return to the podium in two years time.

Three top-four finishes in a row, as well as their three fastest performances ever, is a sign that this could be the case already.

The Curious Case Of Germany

Germany has the pieces to play a similar role that France currently do in this event – a mid-pack finalist with a star (Lukas Maertens), a 1:45-point split swimmer (Rafael Miroslaw) and a couple of depth pieces behind. However, where France made the final here without needing to use Leon Marchand, Germany put Lukas Maertens into the heats and still ended up 9th, missing the final by more than half a second.

They should be a comfortable finalist, with four swimmers sub-1:47 and Martens owning a best of 1:44.14.  Jarno Baschnitt was solid on his World Championships debut, splitting 1:47.08, but the other three legs were a little disappointing.

Without their third and fourth options turning into semi-finals level pieces or a second star emerging, whether Miroslaw or someone else, they don’t have the luxury of adding time in the heats and still being comfortable top-eight finishers.

This team has the potential to break the super-suited German Record of 7:03.21, but has barely been within three seconds of that over the last 24 months. Shaking things up – taking Maertens off the leadoff, the flying legs going out slightly slower so as to not come home in the 28-points on the final 50 as they did here, or something more radical entirely – may be needed for them to break through.

How To Split A 1:43? Send It On The Front End

We saw five splits under 1:44.5 on this relay, and three of them saw a similar race plan. Leon Marchand, Duncan Scott and Luke Hobson were all out well under 50 seconds, the first two in matching 49.59s and Hobson in 49.70. All three fell back towards the field on the final 50, splitting over 27 seconds, significantly so for Marchand’s 27.90, but were out so quick that their splits were still at the top of the field.

Where we often see splits under 27 seconds on the final length in the individual event – 10 out of the 24 swims across the semi-final and final – we only a single one of the 32 swimmers in this final do so. That was Zhang Zhanshuo, who ran down Australia’s Max Giuliani and USA’s Rex Maurer with a 26.76 final 50.

This relay rewards getting out quick at the moment, and the majority of recent 1:43-point splits have seen either sub-50 front end or one close to that mark.

With the event as it currently is, we very rarely see second 100s under the 53-second mark – Duncan Scott in the individual final in Tokyo (52.88) was the most recent. Getting out quick is the tactic to break 1:44 right now.

An Interesting Lineup Decision Does Not Pay Off For The U.S.

Putting their best swimmer on the third leg was a break from the conventional for the U.S., and not one many countries have gone for in the men’s 4×200 free in the past. Pan Zhanle for China at 2024 worlds, Russia’s Danila Izotov in 2009, and perhaps Filippo Megli for Italy in 2021 are the only male “#1” swimmers that have been used on the third leg in the last couple of decades.

The U.S. has used this tactic to great effect in the women’s event, with Katie Ledecky going third to give anchor Bella Sims the platform to break away from Mollie O’Callaghan in 2022. If they were going for something similar here their choice of anchor was a curious one.

Sims was chosen for her early speed – the goal was to force O’Callaghan to chase the first 100 and blow up her race plan, which worked. Sims outsplit O’Callaghan, and the U.S. won by over a second. Rex Maurer here is better known for the second half of his race, and had only the sixth-fastest first 100 of the anchors.

Gabe Jett may have been a better choice if this was the play, having gone out 50.28 in the individual final and 50.80 at Trials. Instead he went second, as they led off with Henry McFadden, 4th at Trials but slower on a flying split in the morning than he had been in Indianapolis.

Hobson upheld his end of whatever the plan was, splitting 1:43.45 to match Duncan Scott for the third-fastest flying split in history. He took the U.S. from 6th to 1st, but his pace may have been better used earlier on the get clear water. Seeing him back on the lead off leg next summer would not be surprising.