Two World Records Fall on Day Five of Para Swimming Championships

2025 World Para Swimming Championships

• September 21-27, 2025
• OCBC Aquatic Centre – Singapore
• LCM (50 Meters)
• Meet Central
• YouTube Livestream Channel
• Results
• Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 

The records just continue to fall in Singapore with two more World Records falling on day five of the Para World Championships. American Katie Kubiak picked up her fourth World Record of these championships along with a gold medal in the women’s S4 50 freestyle and Gabriel Bandeira of Brazil broke the men’s SM14 200 IM World Record for his first gold of the meet.

Para Athlete Classifications:

• Physical Impairment: S1-S10
• Visual Impairment: S11-S13
• Intellectual Impairment: S14

Prefixes Explanation:

• S: Freestyle, Butterfly and Backstroke
• SB: Breaststroke
• SM: IM

Day 5 Highlights:

Katie Kubiak, a 22-year-old out of Wisconsin, started her day five with a Championship Record and an Americas Record in the prelims of the 50 freestyle, touching in 37.78 to lock up the top spot for the final. This swim was about a second under the previous Americas Record of 38.61 that was set by Brazil’s Lidia Vieira Da Cruz at the Paris Paralympics last September and a few tenths under the Championship Record of 38.09 that was set by Germany’s Tanja Scholz in June of 2022.

In the final, she continued her exceptional meet with a gold medal and the first World Record of the day in the women’s S4 50 freestyle. Her time of 36.83 broke the previous record of 36.92 set by Scholz in 2022, and came in more than two seconds ahead of the 2nd place time of 38.98 set by Vieira Da Cruz.

This swim marked Kubiak’s 3rd world title of the meet, and she said “It’s so special and honestly it still feels like a dream every single day. I think my mantra all week has been long is strong, strong is controlled and controlled is fast.”

The 2nd World Record of the day went to Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira in the men’s SM14 200 IM. His time of 2:05.40 came in under the previous record of 2:05.97 set by Nicholas Bennett of Canada in May of 2024, and it broke his own Championship Record of 2:07.50 from 2022.

This was Bandeira’s 2nd Americas Record of the meet after he touched in 1:52.03 to win the silver in the men’s 200 free final.

The World Record was not the only record to go down in the men’s 200 IM, however. Great Britain’s Rhys Darbey shattered the European Record to win the silver medal, touching in 2:05.84, also under the previous World Record time. The previous record was 2:07.98 set by Ukraine’s Dmytro Vanzenko in April of 2024.

Darbey said “I feel pretty good, I mean it’s nice to go under that old world record mark – and for two of us to go under it is unbelievable and shows how much that event has come on since just last year.”

Previous World Record holder Nicholas Bennett won the bronze in 2:06.30.

There were also a number of Championship Records that fell over the course of the day. Danielle Dorris from Canada broke her own record in the women’s S7 50 fly final, touching in 33.93 to beat American Mallory Weggemann by just over three tenths and break her previous record of 33.98 by five-hundredths. Dorris also holds the World Record at 32.99 from September of 2021.

The other individual Championship Record went to Czechia’s David Kratochvil in 56.30. He held the previous record at 56.65 from 2022. He is also the current World Record holder at 56.07 from May of this year.

The final Championship Record of the day was broken by Spain in the 34 point mixed 4×100 medley relay. This classification refers to a team whose classifications cannot add up to more than 34 points. The Spanish team of Nuria Marques Soto (S9 – 1:10.19), Oscar Salguero Galisteo (SB8 – 1:11.09), Inigo Llopis Sanz (S8 – 1:05.80) and Anastasiya Dmytriv (S9 – 1:04.42) came together to touch in 4:31.50, just over a tenth ahead of Great Britain’s 4:31.65, shattering the previous record of 4:35.30 set by Brazil in 2023.

The day also saw three new Americas Records, two Oceanian Records, one European Record, and one African Record.

Laila Suzigan Abate won the bronze medal in the women’s SB5 100 breaststroke for Brazil, touching in 1:48.14 to break her own Americas Record of 1:48.85 from May of this year. The gold medal went to Great Britain’s Grace Harvey in 1:42.88

The women’s S10 100 fly final saw a new European Record from Turkey’s Defne Kurt to win the gold medal. She touched in 1:03.91, breaking Faye Rogers’ record of 1:04.15 from July. Rogers was also in the event, winning the silver in 1:03.94.

There was also a new Americas Record in the event set by bronze medalist Katie Cosgriffe from Canada. Cosgriffe touched in 1:05.82 to take down the record of 1:06.28 set by Mikaela Jenkins in April of 2019.

The men’s S10 100 butterfly final also had a new continental record in the form of bronze medalist Col Pearse’s 56.56 swim for Australia and a new Oceanian Record. The previous record was set at the Paris Paralympics by country mate Alex Saffy at 56.61. Italy’s Stefano Raimondi won the gold in 54.88.

Hannah Kukundawke, from Uganda, finished 4th in the S8 women’s 50 freestyle, touching in 31.93 to set a new African Record, coming in more than half a second under her own record of 32.58 from April. She came in just over half-a-second behind gold medalist Viktoriia Ischiulova from the NPA delegation.

Australia’s Callum Simpson touched in 26.21 to win the silver medal in the men’s S8 50 freestyle, breaking the previous Oceanian record of 26.75 set by Peter Leek all the way back in August of 2010. Ukraine’s Eduard Horodianyn took home the gold medal by just three hundredths, touching in 26.18.

Finally, Gia Pergolini won the gold medal in the women’s S13 50 freestyle final, touching in 27.28 to break the Americas Record of 27.46 set by Kelley Becherer in 2012.

Other Event Winners:

• Women’s 100 Breaststroke SB5: Grace Harvey (GBR)
• Men’s 100 Breaststroke SB5: Andrei Granichka (NPA)
• Women’s 400 Freestyle S9: Lakeisha Patterson (AUS)
• Men’s 400 Freestyle S9: Simone Barlaam (ITA)
• Men’s 50 Freestyle S4: Ami Omer Dadaon (ISR)
• Men’s 50 Butterfly S7: Andrii Trusov (UKR)
• Women’s 100 Freestyle S12: Maria Carolin Gomes Santiago Araujo (BRA)
• Men’s 100 Freestyle S12: Kylian Portal (FRA)
• Women’s 50 Freestyle S6: Anna Hontar (UKR)
• Men’s 50 Freestyle S6: Antonio Fantin (ITA)
• Women’s 200 IM SM14: Valeriia Shabalina (NPA)
• Women’s 50 Freestyle S3: Leanne Smith (USA)
• Men’s 50 Freestyle S3: Josia Tim Alexander Toph (GER)
• Women’s 100 Freestyle S11: Liesette Bruinsma (NED)
• Men’s 50 Freestyle S13: Oleksii Virchenko (UKR)

Medal Table After Day 5