2025 World Championships: Day 8 Relay Analysis – Men’s 4×100 Medley 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 

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 doom and gloom over the U.S.’s options here ended up unfounded, although it did require a monster anchor leg from Jack Alexy to drag them onto the podium. NAB took the win by more than a second, with zero weaknesses throughout their team.

France took a spectacular silver, and are a major player in this relay now after finishing in the top-four for three years in a row and making the podium the last two. Italy were unlucky to miss out on the podium after going 3:28.72 – never before had a sub-3:29 swim failed to make the podium.

Backstroke 

1. Thomas Ceccon, ITA – 51.80
2. Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, FRA – 52.26
3. Miron Lifintsev, NAB – 52.44
4. Oliver Morgan, GBR – 52.74
5. Blake Tierney, CAN – 53.03
6. Tommy Janton, USA – 53.37
7. Lee Juho, KOR – 53.83
8. Kai van Westering, NED – 53.96

Thomas Ceccon swam his fastest 100 back of the meet on the leadoff here, posting his 2nd-fastest swim ever in 51.80. That is the fifth 51-point we have seen in Singapore, after the entire podium was under the mark in the individual event and Miron Lifintsev was 51.78 leading off the mixed medley relay.

He led by around half a second over France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, who was slower than his French Record but also swam his second-fastest swim ever. Lifintsev swam more than half a second slower than his 51.78 on the mixed medley, posting 52.44 for the third-fastest leadoff.

Oliver Morgan was 52.74 after going 52.90 this morning, off the 52.37 he went in the individual final and his 52.12 British Record, with North American duo Blake Tierney and Tommy Janton just on the other side of 53 seconds. Tierney was only eight-hundredths off his Canadian Record of 52.95 from this morning, while Janton was also slightly slower his 53.21 from the heats.

Breaststroke

1. Kirill Prigoda, NAB – 57.92
2. Nicolo Martinenghi, ITA – 58.42
3. Leon Marchand, FRA – 58.44
4. Caspar Corbeau, NED – 58.69
5. Josh Matheny, USA – 59.00
6. Greg Butler, GBR – 59.11
7. Choi Dongyeol, KOR – 59.57
8. Oliver Dawson, CAN – 59.99

Kirill Prigoda had yet another 57-point split today, having been 57.56 on the mixed medley relay and at Russian Nationals in April (57.94). He is proving to be a big-time relay swimmer, setting a new best of 58.53 in the 100 breast heats but not breaking 59 in either the semi-finals or final.

Nicolo Martinenghi and Leon Marchand ended with almost identical splits in 58.42 and 58.44 respectively, but Martineneghi was out half a second faster in 26.69 compared to Marchand’s 27.15. The Frenchman, just 30 minutes removed from winning the 400 IM in the 5th-fastest time ever, had a phenomenal last 15 meters to close the gap to the front two as he beat out his split from last summer by two-tenths.

Caspar Corbeau was the only other swimmer under 59 seconds in 58.69, just off the 58.60 he swam this morning,  but has now split between 58.60 and 58.75 four times at these world championships. Great Britain’s Greg Butler had a nice drop from his best of 59.53 to go 59.11, faster than Filip Nowacki’s 59.25 split from Euro Juniors.

Josh Matheny was 59.00, faster than Campbell McKean this morning and under his flat start time of 59.00, giving Rose a solid platform to begin chasing down the field, although the U.S. were still two seconds off the lead by halfway.

Oliver Dawson, who owns a best of 1:00.73, swam his third sub-60 split of the meet in 59.99, and comes away from Singapore having been part of three separate Canadian Records (two on this relay) and with a bronze medal from the mixed medley.

Butterfly

1. Maxime Grousset, FRA – 49.27
2. Ilya Kharun, CAN – 49.83
3. Andrei Minakov, NAB – 50.17
4. Dare Rose, USA – 50.30
5. Ed Mildred, GBR – 51.08
6. Kim Youngbeom, KOR – 51.15
7. Federico Burdisso, ITA – 51.17
8. Nyls Korstanje, NED – 51.36

We saw the joint-second fastest split all-time from 100 fly champ Maxime Grousset on this leg, as he matched his split from the 2023 world championships to the hundredth. He was phenomenal on this leg, outsplitting NAB’s Andrei Minakov by nearly a second and Italy’s Federico Burdisso by nearly as he brought France from third at the 200 to half a second ahead of NAB at the 300.

Minakov had an exceptional split of his own, seven-tenths faster than he went individually, to keep NAB in touching distance of the leaders, but it was Canada’s Ilya Kharun who had the second-fastest split of the field. Having already split 49.98 on the prelims relay, Kharun was 0.15 seconds faster tonight in 49.83 as he brought Canada from 7th to 5th and within two-tenths of their North American rivals USA.

The U.S. for their part got another 50.3 split from Dare Rose, who fully vindicated the decision to select him to swim the fly leg despite not qualifying individually for the 100 fly. He powered past Great Britain’s Ed Mildred on the second 50 to pull the U.S. into fourth.

That was still more than a second off Italy, for whom Federico Burdisso could not match the 50.69 he swam this morning. His swim of 51.17 was the second-slowest in the field, and saw the Italians fall well back from the front two heading into the anchor leg.

Ed Mildred had another 51.0 split for Great Britain to continue his impressive meet, while Kim Youngbeom was 51.15 for Korea after going 51.12 in the heats. Nyls Korstanje, who has split 50.27 before but missed the individual semi-finals in the 100 fly, was just 51.36.

Freestyle

1. Jack Alexy, USA – 45.95
2. Egor Kornev, NAB – 46.40
3. Josh Liendo, CAN – 46.90
4. Carlos D’Ambrosio, ITA – 47.33
5. Duncan Scott, GBR – 47.70
6. Hwang Sunwoo, KOR – 47.77
7. Yann le Goff, FRA – 47.99
8. Sean Niewold, NED – 48.34

We saw three splits sub-47 on the freestyle, led by Jack Alexy‘s otherworldly 45.95, now the second-fastest split in history behind Pan Zhanle‘s 45.92. That dragged the U.S. from more than a second behind Italy to finish just ahead of them, despite Carlos D’Ambrosio being right on his best ever split in 47.33, 4th-fastest in the field.

Egor Kornev was 46.40 for NAB to go nearly a second faster than his flat start best as he blasted past France’s Yann le Goff through the first 25 meters of the leg. Le Goff had only his 3rd-fastest split of the meet in 47.99, having already posted 47.55 and 47.77 relay legs, but had enough of a buffer to still finish 2nd overall.

Canada’s Josh Liendo was the other swimmer to split 46-point, as he anchored Canada to a big National Record on the back of their phenomenal second half to this relay. This was Liendo’s first-ever split sub-47, after he was 47.08 on the 4×100 free relay last Sunday.

Duncan Scott was just 47.70 for Great Britain after being 47.32 on the 4×100 free relay, while Hwang Sunwoo broke 48 in 47.77 as Korea neared their National Record.

The Netherlands’ Sean Niewold could not replicate his 47.47 from this morning for the Netherlands, going nearly a second slower tonight as they placed 8th