2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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Semi-finals of the men’s 200m butterfly took place on day three of the 2025 World Championships, with American Luca Urlando staking his claim on a potential gold.
Urlando led the field in a time of 1:52.84, followed by Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski who registered 1:53.61 as the 2nd seed.
Also in the mix is Chen Juner of China, the 21-year-old who just lowered his own national record en route to claiming the 3rd seed for tomorrow night’s main event.
Entering this competition, Chen’s lifetime best and Chinese standard stood at the 1:54.16 established at the 2023 Chinese Championships.
Tonight in Singapore, however, Chen sliced .14 off that mark to check in with a speedy 1:54.02.
Splits for Chen’s new national benchmark included 25.05/29.48/29.14/30.35 to put his hat in the ring for a possible medal.
Chen is the sole Asian man who will be racing in the final, as Japan’s Genki Terakado placed 11th this evening, his teammate So Ogata finished 13th and Korean Kim Minseop placed 16th overall.
With his outing, Chen bumps himself up to rank as the 6th-best Asian performer in history.
Top 10 Asian Men’s LCM 200 Butterfly Performers All-Time
- Daiya Seto (JPN) – 1:52.53, 2020
- Tomoru Honda (JPN) – 1:52.70, 2022
- Takeshi Matsuda (JPN) – 1:52.97, 2008
- Masato Sakai (JPN) -1:53.40, 2016
- Nao Horamura (JPN) – 1:53.79, 2018
- Chen Juner (CHN) – 1:54.02, 2025
- Genki Terakado (JPN) – 1:54.07, 2024
- Wu Peng (CHN) – 1:54.35, 2008
- Yin Chen (CHN) – 1:54.43, 2012
- Kuan-Hung Wang (TPE) – 1:54.44, 2021
That means the old national record has been up there 17 years.
By delivering a solid NR, Chen makes it possible that China side bring home its first Worlds relay gold in history.
actually the previous national record is also by Chen – 1:54.16 in 2023
You can see it in this article, ‘Entering this competition, Chen’s lifetime best and Chinese standard stood at the 1:54.16 established at the 2023 Chinese Championships.’
Excited to see what he can put up in the 100. If he does a pb then still very good chance China can win the medley relay