2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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We saw the final day of action unfold at the 2025 World Championships with the nation of China ultimately placing 6th in the overall swimming medal table, but at the top of the Asian nations’ exclusive medal table.
Japan finished its World Championships on a high note as both Tomoyuki Matsushita and Mio Narita earned bronze in their respective men’s and women’s 400m IM contests.
South Korea’s sole medal remained at Kim Woomin‘s 400m freestyle bronze from night one, while Kyrgyzstan also stayed pat with Denis Petrashov‘s 100m breaststroke bronze.
Tonight in Singapore, we saw 12-year-old Yu Zidi of China wrangle up her third 4th-place finish.
After reaping the 4th slot in the women’s 200m IM and 200m fly, the youngster followed suit by finishing just off the podium in the 400m IM.
Yu clocked a time of 4:33.76 to fall just half a second outside Jenna Forrester of Australia and Norita of Japan who tied at 4:33.26 for silver.
Bright things are yet to come for Yu if she continues this trajectory. We’ll most likely see her compete at this year’s Chinese National Games on the calendar for November.
Also of note was the fact that China’s Tang Qianting secured silver in the women’s 50m breaststroke, albeit not at her fastest time here in Singapore.
As we reported, the 21-year-old Olympic multi-medalist ripped a 29.84 opening front half during the women’s 100m breaststroke final. She closed in 35.80 to ultimately finish in 1:05.64 for bronze; however, her 29.84 surpassed the 30.03 she wound up clocking as runner-up behind Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte in the 50m breast final.
Asian National/Continental Records
- Asian Continental
- Li Bingjie, Women’s 400m freestyle (3:58.21)
- Chinese Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay (7:00.91)
- Chinese
- Li Bingjie, Women’s 400m freestyle (3:58.21)
- Chen Juner, Men’s 200m butterfly (1:54.02)
- Men’s 4x200m free relay (7:00.91)
- Japanese
- Tatsuya Murasa, Men’s 200m freestyle (1:44.54)
- Taku Taniguchi, Men’s 50m breaststroke (26.65)
- Korean
- Lee Juho, Men’s 200m backstroke (1:55.70)
- Jo Hyun-Ju, Women’s 200m freestyle (1:58.10)
- Singaporean
- Ching Hwee Gan, Women’s 400m freestyle (4:09.82); Women’s 800m freestyle (8:29.93); Women’s 1500m free (16:01.29)
- Kyrgyzstani
- Denis Petrashov, Men’s 100m breaststroke (58.88)
- Bangladeshi
- Samiul Islam Rafi, Men’s 100m backstroke (58.36)
- Mongolian
- Enkhatmir Batbayar, Men’s 200m freestyle (1:50.26); Men’s 100m backstroke (57.25); Men’s 50m backstroke (25.76)
Asian Medal Table Through Day Eight of 2025 World Championships
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | China | 2 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| 2 | Japan | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | South Korea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | Krgyzstan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Overall Medal Table Through Day Eight of 2025 World Championships
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
U.S.
|
9 | 11 | 9 | 29 |
| 2 |
Australia
|
8 | 6 | 6 | 20 |
| 3 | France | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 | Canada | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| 5 | NAB | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| 6 | China | 2 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| 7 | Germany | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 8 | Romania | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Tunisia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Italy | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 11 | South Africa | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 12 | Great Britain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 13 | Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 14 | Hungary | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 15 | Lithuania | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | Japan | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 17 | Switzerland | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 18 | Belgium | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 19 | Poland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | South Korea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | NAA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The 21.82 50 Free Hong Kong record by Ian Ho is missing
Regardless of Yu’s results and times, what surprises me most is that she manages her efforts successfully through prelims, semis and finals. For a young swimmer who debuts at the international level, it is very hard to swim in the first event. Many young swimmers are not able to display the same level as they do in domestic competitions, not to mention she is literally a kid. She swam brilliantly in her first event, then showed her class by progressing into finals, improving her times, and swam her PBs in the finals. Experienced swimmers still mess this up every now and then.
Yeah that was amazing. Silver and bronze in a 50
Swimming fans outside China, including me, won’t understand the reason why quite a few Chinese male elite swimmers were on the verge of flopping in the Worlds until they could even get a bit understanding of what’s going on behind scenes & races: Chinese sportspeople place way more importance on National Games upcoming in 3 months than on Worlds. It’s beyond cognizance of fandom here.
Anyhow, we’ll wait & see what performances those swimmers should and could deliver soon.
Chinese fans can correct me if I’m wrong but I believe getting lots of medals in those games directly correlates to the amount of money each province receives in sports funding. For the athletes themselves they also get a pretty hefty cash bonus for medals, money you won’t find from World Aquatics. Also, from what I’ve heard Zhejiang province in particular makes it one of their priorities to be the dominant sporting power, and that province just happens to have the biggest cohort of high-level swimmers like Pan, Wang, and Xu.
Rumor has it that a gold medalist in the Nationals win 1 million Chinese Yuan and it’s even not the most enticing bonus, given that a sportsman’s performance therein, more precisely speaking, RANK, is pegged with social benefits after retirement. That is the TRUMP in the Games/games.
(Which is about $140,000 USD)
Theoretically is and actually way higher than $140,000 in terms of purchasing power.
In addition, names like Pan, Xu etc. are peerless nationwide in events they excel in, along with relay events they may participate, that means they’ll collect a multiple of this amount eventually.
Not sure whether the lumpsum is tax-exempt.
Not to mention the massive endorsement deals, sponsorships and brand ambassadorships they collect beyond the incentives from their sports federation.
Eileen Gu may be one of the high-profile examples of an athlete parlaying her medals into major bank in the millions (over $31 million in one year alone). No doubt it was the decisive factor to shoehorn a backdoor Chinese citizenship (I believe technically those born in a foreign country where one of their parents still has/had a valid Chinese citizen status without becoming a naturalized citizen but attained permanent residence in that foreign country would not be afforded that inherited citizenship).
In her favor, children under 18 (when she skied for China in 2022) can hold dual… Read more »
I can’t wait to watch her in Asian Games next year.
Yeah I think Yu Yiting must be sweating out now with her prospect in Asian Games. She could have sliced a few seconds just from the push off the wall during the turns. I noticed she slipped two or three places with each turn and quickly caught up after 15m.
For Korea, please add JI Yuchan in the mens 50m free! He clocked 21.66 at the swim-off from his previous NR of 21.72.
She’s all in for 400IM and 200 Butterfly. Look out!!!!!!!!!!@
Japan loves the 200 breast/400 IM.