2025 NOVA SPEEDO GRAND CHALLENGE
- May 23-25, 2025
- William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center Pool, Irvine, California
- Long Course Meters (50 meters)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “2025 CA 29th NOVA-Speedo Grand Challenge”
On the opening day of the 2025 NOVA Speedo Grand Challenge, Arizona State sophomore Ilya Kharun entered the 50 freestyle, but chose to swim butterfly in the final instead. He finished 5th, notching a personal best of 22.97—his first time under 23 seconds—which unofficially eclipses his own Canadian record of 23.09 in the event.
Technically, athletes can swim any stroke in a freestyle race, as long as they follow the rules of that stroke. Even when a swimmer opts for butterfly or another stroke in the 50 free, their time still counts for freestyle rankings and records. So, Canadian Swimming will likely not ratify this performance.
With the Canadian World Trials scheduled for June 7–12 in Victoria, this is unlikely to be an issue for the 20-year-old, who has been steadily chipping away at his 50 times across all courses over the past year and looks primed to drop even more time.
Top-5 Unofficial Canadian 50 Butterly Performers:
- Ilya Kharun, 05/23/2025 — 22.97
- Josh Liendo, 08/03/2025 — 23.24 (Per Swimming Canada record rules, this time does not count as a record or for ranking purposes since it was a split from the first 50 of a 100 fly)
- Finlay Knox, 02/11/2024 — 23.25
- Santo Condorelli, 07/02/2015 — 23.30
- Kelly Aspinall, 07/11/2013 — 23.52
Top-5 Official Canadian 50 Butterfly Performers:
- Ilya Kharun, 05/02/2025 – 23.09*
- Finlay Knox, 02/11/2024 – 23.25
- Josh Liendo, 04/02/2023 – 23.27
- Santo Condorelli, 07/02/2015 – 23.30
- Kelly Aspinall, 107/11/2013 – 23.52
Kharun added a win in the 100 fly on Saturday with a time of 50.66—just shy of his career best of 50.45—and is scheduled to compete in the 200 fly later today.
The 20-year-old, best known for winning double bronze in the 100 and 200 fly at the Paris Olympics, logged the aforementioned 23.09 earlier this month at the Pro Swim Series stop in Fort Lauderdale, setting both Canadian and Pro Swim Series records. He followed that up with a clocking of 23.18 at the Sun Devil Open last weekend.
Before those swims, Kharun had a spectacular short course meters season in the event, breaking 22 seconds three times and finishing ranked #3 all-time with a 21.67 that earned him silver at the Short Course World Championships in Budapest—a performance that would’ve stood as the world record just three months earlier, before Noe Ponti’s breakout run.
Kharun has also been a force in the yards version of the event, particularly this season, showing marked improvement in his 50s under Herbie Behm, his primary coach since Bob Bowman left for the head coaching job at Texas. Kharun split 18.78 at NCAAs—the fastest in history—and delivered multiple sub-19 relay splits earlier in the year.
Race Video:
Courtesy of Arizona State Head Coach Herbie Behm
Wins 50 free swimming fly!!