2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
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BOYS’ 100 FREESTYLE – Semifinals
- World Record: 46.40 – Pan Zhanle, China (2024)
- World Junior Record: 46.86 – David Popovici, Romania (2022)
- Championship Record: 47.07 – David Popovici, Romania (2022)
Final Qualifiers:
- Jacob Mills (Great Britain) — 47.74
- Carlos D’ Ambrosio (Italy) — 47.86
- Roman Zhidkov (NAB) — 48.92
- Tajus Juska (Lithuania) — 49.01
- Ben Luke Cotroneo (Australia) — 49.33
- Gabriel Shepherd (Great Britain) — 49.44
- Neo Dutriaux (France) — 49.56
- Austin Carpenter (United States) — 49.59
17-year-old Jacob Mills continued his amazing 2025 campaign by going sub-48 for the first time ever in the boys’ 100 freestyle at the World Junior Championships.
Mills clocked 47.74 to win semifinal two, qualifying first for tomorrow’s final ahead of 18-year-old Italian Carlos D’Ambrosio, who won semifinal one in 47.86. The two finished over a second clear of the rest of the field.
Mills has been on a steep upward trajectory, beginning with a personal best of 49.61 logged at the Rotterdam Qualification Meet in November, followed by an even quicker PB of 49.33 at the Edinburgh International Meet in March.
He proceeded to slice a major chunk off that mark with a 48.03 at April’s Aquatics GB Championships, where he touched 2nd.
It’s astonishing to think how much time Mills has dropped in just the last several months, yet his firecracker swim tonight now situates him as the 3rd-swiftest British performer in history. The performance also vaults him to 6th on the all-time Junior rankings. The result also ranks him as the third-fastest 17-year-old in history, behind only David Popovici‘s world junior record of 46.86 and Pan Zhanle‘s 47.65.
With his 47.74, Mills bumps Jacob Whittle, who owns a 48.03 from two years ago and was previously tied with Mills’ old personal best, out of the top five.
Top 5 British Men’s LCM 100 Freestyle Performers All-Time:
- Matt Richards – 47.45, 2023
- Lewis Burras – 47.63, 2022
- Jacob Mills — 47.74, 2025*
- Duncan Scott – 47.87, 2021
- Tom Dean – 47.93, 2022
Additionally, Mill’s historic swim this evening represents his own British Age Record for 17-year-olds.
His two fastest times ever are also under the existing record for 18-year-old boys, which stands at 48.23 from Richards in 2021.
He nows sits 13th in the world standings for 2025:
2024-2025 LCM Men 100 Free
POPOVICI
46.51 ER
| 2 | Jack ALEXY | USA | 46.81 AR | 07/30 |
| 3 | Guilherme CARIBE SANTOS | BRA | 47.10 | 04/23 |
| 4 | Kyle Chalmers | AUS | 47.17 | 07/31 |
| 5 | Egor KORNEV | RUS | 47.29 | 07/30 |
| 6 | Maxime GROUSSET | FRA | 47.39 | 07/30 |
| 7 | Patrick Sammon | USA | 47.47 | 06/03 |
| 8 | Chris Guiliano | USA | 47.49 | 06/03 |
| 9 | Destin LASCO | USA | 47.58 | 06/03 |
| 10 | Matt RICHARDS | GBR | 47.59 | 07/30 |
| 11 | Flynn Southam | AUS | 47.69 | 06/12 |
| 12 | Nandor NEMETH | HUN | 47.72 | 07/30 |
| 13 | Jacob Mills | GBR | 47.74 | 08/23 |
Earlier this week in Otopeni, Mills grabbed silver in the 50 free (22.02) after breaking 22 seconds for the first time in prelims with a 21.98. Tomorrow’s 100 free final will be his last individual event of the program. “He’s already helped Great Britain to silver in the mixed 4×100 free relay with a 47.76 split, anchored the mixed 4×100 medley relay prelims in 48.11 (the team won bronze in the final), and led off the 4×100 free relay that finished 5th, swimming 48.27 in finals after notching 48.11 in prelims.
Mills doesn’t have much international experience besides the senior World Championships last month, where he competed in the 50 and 100 free individually as well as relay events. In the 50 free he finished 28th in 22.15, and in the 100 he clocked 48.54 for 23rd. He led off Team GB’s national record-breaking 4×100 free relay in 48.51, with the team finishing 4th overall. He also led off that relay in prelims, logging 48.34.
Besides tomorrow’s 100 free final, the 4×100 medley relay is expected to be his final event of the meet at the end of the session. He will have about an hour and 45 minutes between races.
Can’t believe Scott and Dean’s PBs are only 47.9+ when they’ve both gone 46+ flying splits, with Scott having gone 46 low before
They rarely swam the 100 fully tapered with a flat start.
Scott had a massive draft from Adrian.
What about in his 4×200 relay splits? No draft there. He’s crazy fast
Can’t wait for Mills and D’Ambrosio to feature in 2028 LA m100 free final alongside Pan, Popovici, Jalexy, Chalmers, and 2 other sprinters
Jacob came under spotlight since GB’s Trials.
During the WJC, he and D’Ambrosio Carlos turn out to be the top 2 prospects for international sprint freestyle podia in the future.
How did team GB get so good?
Did you see our results at worlds…?!
They had no big names prior to like 2012 though
Rebecca adlington was a pretty big name
That is the one name I knew of, but no others.
Ebbs & flows – Our Junior teams have been poor for quite a while, hence very few new names stepping up to the senior team. Now they all seem to be coming at once.
I guess this generation of swimmers is the first to benefit/be inspired from role models such as Peaty/Scott/Proud etc that helped pave the way and put swimming on the sporting map in the UK in a way that it wasn’t before
It all started with National lottery funding, it’s been up and down since then, but there is now at least some sort of system and the results are consistently light years better than they were in the 90s.
I remember growing up there were literally only a couple of 50m pools in the whole country!
@Dee, is this now officially our most successful world juniors squad?
Yes, by a long way – Previous best was 2008 (8 medals). 2011 & 2013 were next best, so basically the meets that brought through what we would call the ‘golden generation’.
Bill Sweetenham raised the bar.
Correct.
My sense is that the big difference now is that the UK has a healthy number of centres of excellence. So if you’re talented, you’re far more likely to be spotted and given the opportunity to fulfil your potential. The facilities and coaching are much better too (if far from perfect).
Swimming is also quite big in the UK. You wouldn’t think so from how people talk about it and how much football dominates sporting discourse. But it is a mass participation sport in the UK and a lot of kids join local swimming clubs. That’s probably true in many places though – and it’s possibly just a fluke that 2 or 3 youngsters have emerged who are swimming… Read more »
Seems quite coherent to me. Point about current junior depth is a good one and important. Any individual prospect may or may not develop, but if there’s enough of them, chances are someone will. Easy to forget that when Jimmy Guy and Peaty were juniors, they were excellent, but not the best in Britain, that was Matthew Johnson and Craig Benson.
GB is to the men’s 4×100 free relay now what Korea is to the men’s 4×200 free relay
3 historically amazing legs with a rising youngster to finally slot in and give a reliable 4th leg.
A 47.7 leadoff by mills followed by potentially 3 sub 47s of the veterans Richards/Dean/Scott is a contender for gold any day
Similarly (just to give context to my analogy), a a 1:46 low from Kim Youngbeom followed by 3 sub 1:45s from the veterans Kim (Woomin)/Lee/Hwang is at least a podium contender
Now we wait to see if they ever get to put it together when it counts
A contender sure but I don’t see it unless they get more swimmers into the low 47 territory.
I agree, consistency is the name of the game here. But it’s a much clearer path than they’ve had in a while, at least other than that year they got disqualified.
Yea and I do think mills is positioned to breakout big in 27 worlds/LA. But we just saw what he went with pressure on him and in a faster final. He’d get eaten up by big waves right now if he swam in an elite 100 free field I bet.
Kids swim speed is incredible, once they get that start sorted he’s going to to the moon, absolute rocket
(I thought the same about Whittle so trying to not do too much about Mills ahha)
Agree there, but I do think Whittle was a pretty early developer, he was growing a full beard as a junior and due to Covid lockdown he moved into a PC set up when he was very, very young.
He should also move to Stirling or Manchester. He has so much potential.
Why so desperate to change things that are working. Kids coach is clearly doing a good job. Leave them alone and he will move when he outgrows wherever he is.
I think he means Whittle should move?