2025 World Championships: Day 8 Finals Live Recap

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
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• LCM (50m)
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  • 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 Finals Heat Sheet

Friends, it’s time for the last session at the 2025 World Aquatic Championships. The odd post-COVID cycle has meant that we’ve had a long-course World Championships every year since 2022, but now it’s time for our last World Championship session until 2027.

Event Schedule 

• Men’s 50 backstroke final
• Women’s 50 breaststroke final
• Women’s 50 freestyle final
• Men’s 1500 freestyle final
• Men’s 400 IM final
• Women’s 400 IM final
• Men’s 4×100 medley relay final
• Women’s 4×100 medley relay final

The evening kicks off with the men’s 50 backstroke final. There, NAB athletes Kliment Kolesnikov and Pavel Samusenko are the top two seeds and looking to give their committee a 1-2 to begin the night. Kolesnikov is the world record holder and heavy favorite to win, but Coetze has been exceptional so far this weekend and is one of the strongest candidates to break up the NAB grip on the top spots.

The session begins with three 50-meter finals. After the men’s 50 backstroke, we’ve got the women’s 50 freestyle. Kasia Wasick is the top seed, followed by Milou Van Wijk, the 100 freestyle fourth-place finisher. Meg Harris and Gretchen Walsh tied for third-fastest qualifier in the semifinals and are candidates for the podium, as are Torri Huske, who’s been rounding into form after illness derailed the start of her meet and the Chinese duo of Cheng Yujie and Wu Qingfeng, who tied in the semifinals.

The spotlight then shifts to the women’s 50 breaststroke. World record holder Ruta Meilutyte is the clear favorite in this race. Aside from the aforementioned world record, she’s the only swimmer in this field that’s broken 30 seconds so far in Singapore. Several names will likely join her under that barrier tonight, likely names include 2024 silver medalist Tang Qianting, world junior record holder Benedetta Pilato, and Lilly King in the last individual race of her professional career.

With the sprints out of the way, it’s time for the men’s 1500 freestyle. Germany is the only team to put two swimmers into the men’s 400/800/1500 freestyle, producing at least one medal in the first two events. Olympic medalist Florian Wellbrock is the top seed and his compatriot Sven Schwarz joins him in this race, looking for his second medal this week. After winning the 800 freestyle in a textile world record, Ahmed Jaouadi aims to hit the distance double.

Both Bobby Finke and Sam Short have dealt with challenges at this competition, they’ll aim to end their meet on a high note on the podium. Finke is the two-time defending Olympic champion in this race and produced an incredible swim last summer in Paris for gold in a world record time.

In the final individual races of the meet, the men’s and women’s 400 IM, Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh are the favorites. Both are the world record holders in their respective race and Marchand took over the men’s 200 IM world standard earlier this week in stunning fashion. After a bronze in the 800 freestyle yesterday, McIntosh won’t achieve her original goal of five individual gold medals. Watch for her to leave it all in the pool as she aims to pick up her fourth gold this week, which would still make her the most decorated swimmer of the meet in individual races.

Men’s 50 Backstroke — Final

• World Record: 23.55 — Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia (2023)
• World Junior Record: 24.00 — Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia (2018)
• Championship Record: 24.04 — Liam Tancock, Great Britain (2009)
• 2023 World Champion: Hunter Armstrong, United States — 24.05

Final:

1. Kliment Kolesnikov (NAB) – 23.68 *Championship Record
2. Pieter Coetze (South Africa)/Pavel Samusenko (NAB) – 24.17
3. (TIE)
4. Ksawery Masiuk (Poland) – 24.51
5. Quintin McCarty (United States) – 24.58
6. Apostolos Christou (Greece) – 24.59
7. Isaac Cooper (Australia) – 24.61
8. Hubert Kos (Hungary) – 24.62

Kliment Kolesnikov, the world record holder, made it clear throughout the rounds that he was the man to beat, posting 24.08 and 24.16 efforts on his way to the medal round. Tonight, he put the hammer down, speeding away from the competition to win the first individual long-course world title of his career in a championship record.

Kolesnikov sped to a 23.68, taking over Liam Tancock‘s super-suited championship record that had stood at 24.00 since the 2009 World Championships.

The Neutral Athletes – B team was hoping for a 1-2 finish with Kolesnikov and Pavel Samusenko. They got that, but Samusenko will have company on the podium’s second step as he and Pieter Coetze both stopped the clock in 24.17 for silver. The pair touched .49 seconds behind Kolesnikov.

It’s another African record for Coetze, breaking the mark of 24.32 he established in the heats. That swim gave him the African record in all three long-course backstroke distances. Now, he’s medaled in all three distances at these World Championships.

Ksawery Masiuk was less than a tenth off the Polish record he swam in the semifinals (24.41) to take fourth. He’s a two-time bronze medalist in this race, making the podium in 2022 and 2024.

Women’s 50 Breaststroke — Final

• World Record: 29.16 — Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania (2023)
• World Junior Record: 29.30 — Benedetta Pilato, Italy (2021)
• Championship Record: 29.16 — Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania — 29.16

Final: 

1. Ruta Meilutyte (Lithuania) – 29.55
2. Tang Qianting (China) – 30.03
3. Benedetta Pilato (Italy) – 30.14
4. Anita Bottazzo (Italy) – 30.21
5. Lilly King (United States) – 30.25
6. Eneli Jefimova (Estonia) – 30.29
7. Anastasia Gorbenko (Israel) – 30.45
8. Veera Kivirinta (Finland) – 30.68

Make that four-straight women’s 50 breaststroke titles for Ruta Meilutyte. The 2012 Olympic champion in the 100 breaststroke has been unstoppable at this distance since the 2022 World Championships, when she won her fist 50 breaststroke long-course title. As we mentioned above, the chaotic post-COVID Olympic cycle has given us a long-course World Championships for four consecutive years. Meilutyte has dominated this event for that entire run, including a world-record setting performance in 2023.

She was dominant in tonight’s final too. Meilutyte powered away from the field, firing off a 29.55. She is the only woman to break 30 seconds, not just tonight, but throughout the entire meet. Several of the other finalists have cleared that barrier before. But none could get it done tonight, as Tang Qianting defended her silver medal from Doha in 30.03. She was out faster in the first 50 of her 100 breaststroke final.

Marrit Steenbergen became the first swimmer to defend her 2024 World Championship title, winning the 100 freestyle. This entire podium is the same as it was in Doha, with Italy’s Benedetta Pilato taking third. The Italians were 3rd and 4th in this race, with Anita Bottazzo touching in 30.21, just ahead of Lilly King, who posted a 30.25 in her final international professional race.

This event broke the American women’s streak of medaling in every single event.

Women’s 50 Freestyle — Final

• World Record: 23.61 — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden (2023)
• World Junior Record: 24.17 — Claire Curzan, United States (2021)
• Championship Record: 23.61 — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 23.62
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 23.71

Final: 

1. Meg Harris (Australia) – 24.02
2. Wu Qingfeng (China) – 24.26
3. Cheng Yujie (China) – 24.28
4. Gretchen Walsh (United States) – 24.40
5. Milou Van Wijk (Netherlands) – 24.47
6. Torri Huske (United States) – 24.50
7. Florine Gaspard (Belgium) – 24.63
8. Kasia Wasick (Poland) – 24.74

Meg Harris has been a crucial part of the Australian team for years now. She’s helped the team to numerous Olympic and World Championship relay titles. Now for the first time, she is an individual long-course world champion.

Harris earned her first individual Olympic medal last summer, taking silver in the women’s 50 freestyle with a 23.97. She was the only woman besides gold medalist Sarah Sjostrom to crack 24 seconds in any of the event’s rounds. Tonight, 24.02 was enough for her to claim the world title, improving from silver at the Olympics and bronze at 2022 Worlds (which was her first individual long-course Worlds medal).

Harris won the women’s splash-and-dash by over two-tenths. Chinese teammates Wu Qingfeng and Cheng Yujie nearly tied again after tying in the semifinals. But the 22-year-old Wu got her hand on the wall two-hundredths ahead of Cheng in the final, claiming silver. Wu clocked 24.26 and this is her first individual medal on the World Championship stage. It’s Cheng’s first individual Worlds medal as well. They 19-year-old swam 24.28 to round out the podium.

The three medalists got a decent amount of separation on the rest of the field, with American Gretchen Walsh taking 4th in 24.40. Her teammate Torri Huske was 6th (24.50) while Kasia Wasick, the top seed heading into the final, faded to 8th (24.74).

Men’s 1500 Freestyle – Final

• World Record: 14:30.67 – Bobby Finke, United States (2024)
• World Junior Record: 14:41.22 – Kuzey Tuncelli, Turkey (2024)
• Championship Record: 14:31.54 – Ahmed Hafnaoui, Tunisia (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Ahmed Hafnaoui, Tunisia – 14:31.54
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Bobby Finke, United States – 14:30.67

Final: 

1. Ahmed Jaouadi (Tunisia) – 14:34.41
2. Sven Schwarz (Germany) – 14:35.69
3. Bobby Finke (United States) – 14:36.60
4. Sam Short (Australia) – 14:43.08
5. Florian Wellbrock (Germany) – 14:44.29
6. Kuzey Tuncelli (Turkey) – 14:52.44
7. Zalan Sarkany (Hungary) – 14:55.17
8. Damien Joly (France) – 15:19.06

Ahmed Jaouadi has completed the distance double in Singapore, winning gold in the men’s 800 and 1500 freestyle.

Through the first part of the race, it looked like this race was going to be as close as the epic women’s 800 freestyle final we watched yesterday. Two-time defending Olympic champion and world record holder Bobby Finke led the race at the 200-meter mark in 1:54.23, with the top six swimmers separated by just 1.18 seconds.

That trend continued at the 500-meter mark. With the first third of the race complete, Finke was still in the lead at 4:51.70, with Jaouadi running 6th in 4:52.61. At 750-meters, Sven Schwarz, the 800 freestyle silver medalist, took over the lead from Finke. Finke, Jaoudi, Florian Wellbrock, and Kuzey Tuncelli were still closely marking each other, with Sam Short pulling closer. Short had to withdraw from the 800 freestyle final due to illness.

Jaoudi held his first lead of the event at the 900-meter mark. He, Schwarz, and Finke continued to trade places in the top three through the final 500 meters of this race. It looked this could come down to the touch, but Finke–who also dealt with illness this week–couldn’t close out the final 150 meters with the other two swimmers.

Jaouadi and Schwarz pulled clear, then Jaouadi split 28.66/28.35 over the final 100 meters to earn the title in 14:34.41. The swim is a lifetime best for Jaouadi, moving him up to 6th fastest performer all-time. Schwarz’s silver-medal winning time of 14:35.69 moved him into the top 10 all time as well in 9th.

Finke held on for bronze with a 14:36.60, while Short took 4th in 14:43.08. Wellbrock gave Germany a 1-5 finish in this race with a 14:44.29.

Men’s 400 IM — Final

• World Record: 4:02.50 – Leon Marchand, France (2023)
• World Junior Record: 4:10.02 – Ilya Borodin, Russia (2021)
• Championship Record: 4:02.50 – Leon Marchand, France (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Leon Marchand, France – 4:02.50
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Leon Marchand, France – 4:02.95

Final:

1. Léon Marchand (France) – 4:04.73
2. Tomoyuki Matsushita (Japan) – 4:08.32
3. Ilia Borodin (NAB) – 4:09.16
4. Asaki Nishikawa (Japan) – 4:10.21
5. Maxim Stupin (NAB) – 4:12.46
6. Gabor Zombori (Hungary) – 4:12.51
7. Max Litchfield (Great Britain) – 4:12.77
8. Brendon Smith (Australia) – 4:13.28

Leon Marchand flirted with danger during the heats, qualifying seventh for the final. Safely through to the final in an outside lane, Marchand left no question in the final.

He led the race from start to finish. His butterfly split of 54.92 established a lead of almost a second over the rest of the field and he continued to push the pace, pulling away to win in 4:04.73, which is the fourth-fastest swim of his career and the fifth-fastest in history. Only he and Michael Phelps have been faster.

Marchand has now swept the 200 and 400 IM at the 2022 Worlds, 2023 Worlds, 2024 Olympics, and 2025 Worlds, his last four major international competitions.

Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita was a surprise silver medalist in this event at the Paris Games, beating Carson Foster by four-hundredths. He defended that medal position this evening, swimming a lifetime best 4:08.32. His time beats the 4:08.61 he swam earlier this year at Japan’s national championships.

Ilia Borodin earned a third medal for the NAB athletes so far this session, taking bronze in 4:09.16. Borodin was second with 50 meters to go, but Matsushita ran him down with a 28.06 closing split. Borodin’s medal marks his first long-course World Championship medal. He won his first World Championship medal in any pool size in December at the 2024 Short Course World Championships.

The three medalists were the only swimmers in the final to crack 4:10. Japan’s Asaki Nishikawa swam 4:10.21, giving Japan a 2-4 finish in this event.

Women’s 400 IIM — Final

• World Record: 4:23.65 – Summer McIntosh, Canada (2025)
• World Junior Record: 4:24.38 – Summer McIntosh, Canada (2024)
• Championship Record: 4:27.11 – Summer McIntosh, Canada (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 4:27.11
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 4:27.71

Final:

1. Summer McIntosh (Canada) – 4:25.78 *Championship Record*
2. Jenna Forrester (Australia)/Mio Narita (Japan) – 4:33.26
3. (tie)
4. Yu Zidi (China) – 4:33.76
5. Emma Weyant (United States) – 4:34.01
6. Katie Grimes (United States) – 4:36.52
7. Waka Kobori (Japan) – 4:38.05
8. Freya Colbert (Great Britain) – 4:40.21

It wasn’t the five individual gold medals she was aiming for, but with her 400 IM gold medal tonight, Summer McIntosh joins Michael Phelps and Sarah Sjostrom as the only swimmers to win five individual medals in the pool at a long-course World Championships.

She joined that exclusive club with a championship record time, smashing the 4:27.11 she swam to earn her title two years ago in Fukuoka. McIntosh, the world record holder in this race, had an even bigger margin of victory than Marchand did in the previous final, leaving everyone else in the final over seven seconds behind as they fought it out for the final two steps on the podium.

With this win, McIntosh continues her global reign in this event. She’s won this event at her last four major international championships.

And behind McIntosh, there was indeed a battle for the medals. Mio Narita moved from fifth at the halfway point into second by the end of the breaststroke leg. Jenna Forrester came back at her over the freestyle leg, splitting 1:03.03 on the final 100 meters. It wasn’t quite enough to get over the top of Narita though. The two swimmers touched the wall together, earning the second tie for silver we’ve seen this session.

Narita and Forrester swam a 4:33.26, which makes Narita the second-fastest Japanese performer in history. This is Narita’s first medal on the global stage and it is both her and Forrester’s first long-course World Championship medal.

12-year-old phenom Yu Zidi notched another 4th place finish in an individual final in her impressive debut at the senior World Championships. Like she has in all her races, she closed the race hard. Yu split 1:01.90 on the freestyle leg, including a 30.45 final 50 split (a full second faster than her first 50 meters of freestyle).

Americans Emma Weyant and Katie Grimes finished 5th and 6th. The American women had medaled in every single individual event before this session. Now, on Day 8, they will earn no individual medals as there is only the women’s 4×100 medley relay remaining.

Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay — Final

• World Record: 3:26.78 — United States (Murphy, Andrew, Dressel, Apple) (2021)
• World Junior Record: 3:33.19 — Russia (Zurev, Gerasimenko, Minakov, Shchegolev) (2019)
• Championship Record: 3:27.20 — United States (Murphy, Fink, Rose, Alexy) (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: United States (Murphy, Fink, Rose, Alexy) — 3:27.20
• 2024 Olympic Champion: China (Xu, Qin, Sun, Pan) — 3:27.46

Final: 

1. Neutral Athletes – B (Lifintsev, Prigoda, Minakov, Kornev) – 3:26.93 *Championship Record*
2. France (Nodye-Brouard, Marchand, Grousset, le Goff) – 3:27.96
3. USA (Janton, Matheny, Rose, Alexy) – 3:28.62
4. Italy – 3:28.72
5. Canada – 3:29.75
6. Great Britain – 3:30.63
7. South Korea – 3:32.32
8. Netherlands – 3:32.35

The Neutral Athletes – B team stormed to another relay win. The team of Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov, and Egor Kornev ended the meet in style, taking gold in 3:26.93, a new Championship and European record.

This is the second World Championships where the NAB committee has won the men’s 4×100 medley relay as they won at 2024 Short Course Worlds in a world record. Their 3:26.93 tonight breaks the championship record the United States swam two years ago.

It was Italy in first after the backstroke leg though, as Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon fired off a 51.80. That time would have won gold in Singapore earlier this week and is the third-fastest performance in history (World Aquatics will recognize it as #2 as they don’t recognize Lifintsev’s 51.78 from the mixed medley lead-off). Lifintsev put the NAB team in third with a 52.44, with Yohann Ndoye-Brouard giving France the second-place spot with a 52.26.

Kirill Prigoda moved the NAB team into second with a 57.92 breaststroke split. Italy still had the lead as they’d turned over to another Olympic champion, Nicolo Martinenghi, who split 58.42. Less than 30 minutes after winning the 400 IM, Marchand kept France in medal position at 3rd with a 58.44 split.

Marchand handed off to Maxime Grousset, this week’s 50/100 butterfly champion. He blitzed a 49.27 butterfly leg, tying his performance from the Paris Olympics as the second-fastest split in history. That effort put France in the lead with 100 meters to go, about a half-second ahead of NAB.

The other sub-50 second 100 fly split in the field was Ilya Kharun, who did so for the second time today with a 49.83, faster than he was this morning.

Egor Kornev‘s 46.40 split got the job done for the Neutral Athletes – B team as he overtook France to grab gold. Yann le Goff‘s 47.99 anchor gave France the silver medal in a national record 3:27.96 as they beat their time and medal position from the Paris Olympics.

Behind, the Americans were running fourth with 100 meters to go. Then, Jack Alexy dove into the water. Alexy has established himself as a leader in the pool this week for Team USA and has been one of their most consistent performers this week with three sub-47 100 freestyle swims. Arguably, he saved his best for last. He dropped a 45.95 anchor, the second-fastest split all-time and .03 seconds off Pan Zhanle‘s record split, to make sure the American men did not miss another relay podium.

His split was the fastest freestyle leg in the field and he caught the Italians in the closing meters, out-touching them for the final spot on the podium, 3:28.62 to 3:28.72.

The Canadian team of Blake Tierney, Oliver Dawson, Kharun, and Josh Liendo broke their national record for the second time today for 5th. Liendo was added to the relay for finals and anchored in 46.90, the third-fastest free split in the field.

Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay — Final

• World Record: 3:49.63 — United States (Smith, King, G. Walsh, Huske) (2024)
• World Junior Record: 3:58.38 — Canada (Hannah, Knelson, Oleksiak, Ruck) (2017)
• Championship Record: 3:50.40 — United States (Smith, King, Dahlia, Manuel) (2019)
• 2023 World Champion: United States (Smith, King, G. Walsh, Douglass) — 3:52.08
• 2024 Olympic Champion: United States (Smith, King, G. Walsh, Huske) — 3:52.08

Final: 

1. United States (Smith, Douglass, G. Walsh, Huske) – 3:49.34 *World Record*
2. Australia (McKeown, Ramsay, Perkins, O’Callaghan) – 3:52.67
3. China (Peng, Tang, Zhang, Cheng) – 3:54.77
4. NAB – 3:55.17
5. Canada – 3:55.63
6. Germany – 3:56.02
7. Japan – 3:57.63
8. Great Britain – 3:57.95

The American women missed medaling in an individual event today, but they delivered in the final event of the meet, the women’s 4×100 medley relay. Even with the illness in the team, the squad were the heavy favorites coming into tonight. In the final, they reminded everyone why, swimming an emphatic 3:49.34 and cracking the world record they set for gold in Paris.

Regan Smith gave the U.S. the lead after the backstroke leg with a 57.57 lead-off. That used to be a world-record time, but in a display of just how far she and Kaylee McKeown have pushed the event in the last six years, it’s now tied for 15th fastest all-time performance. McKeown herself swam 57.69, putting the Australians firmly in silver, with Canada third after Kylie Masse‘s 58.77.

The 100 breaststroke is a new event for Douglass on the international stage and she showed her potential this week by winning a silver medal. She popped a 1:04.27 breaststroke split here, which is the fifth-fastest performance in event history.

Douglass’ effort put the U.S. almost three seconds ahead of the field. The gap exploded above that with Walsh dropping the fastest 100 butterfly split of all-time, a 54.98. She’s the first woman to split sub-55, as she and Sarah Sjostrom were previously tied for fastest split at 55.03.

Huske anchored the team with a 52.52 freestyle split, stopping the clock at 3:49.34. Huske and Douglass have been on the two world-record setting U.S. relays this week and Huske has been the anchor both times. She had a rough start to the meet and was forced to withdraw from the 100 butterfly, where she is the reigning Olympic champion, due to illness. But she’s battled back and will end the meet with an individual bronze, two relay golds, and a relay silver.

This week’s 200 freestyle world champion and 100 freestyle silver medalist Mollie O’Callaghan closed the gap a bit on the final leg, turning in a field-best 52.23 freestyle split. The Australian quartet of McKeown, Ella Ramsay, Alex Perkins, and O’Callaghan were second the entire race and finished in 3:52.67 for silver, 3.33 seconds back from the Americans.

China grabbed bronze in 3:54.77, four-tenths ahead of the NAB team. The team was sixth after the backstroke leg, but Tang Qianting, who medaled in both the 50/100 breaststroke this week, split 1:05.48 to pull the team into 4th. Zhang Yufei‘s 56.32 butterfly split put them third and 50 free bronze medalist Cheng Yujie held that position with a 53.03 anchor leg.

About 30 minutes after her 400 IM win, Summer McIntosh split 57.35 on fly to held the Canadians to a 5th place finish. She teamed with Masse, Sophie Angus, and Taylor Ruch for a final time of 3:55.63.