By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
2025 World Championships
July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming) Singapore, Singapore World Aquatics Championships Arena LCM (50m) Meet Central How To Watch SwimSwam Preview Index Entry Book Live Results Euro Recap, Day 1: Lukas Märtens Earns First World Title, Completes Epic Year In 400 Free Euro Recap, Day 2: Roos Vanotterdijk Wins Belgium’s First World Championship Medal Since 1998 Euro Recap, Day 3: Simona Quadarella Swims First 1500 Free PB In Six Years, Sets European Record Euro Recap, Day 4: Sven Schwarz and Lukas Märtens’ 800 Free Medals Keep Germany Riding High Euro Recap, Day 5: David Popovici Completes 100/200 Free Double Gold After Nearly Not SwimmingOver the last decade, the British men have become synonymous with the 4×200 freestyle relay. That stayed true this evening as the British team of Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan, and Duncan Scott won the world title in Singapore.
Since 2015, there have been ten men’s 4×200 freestyle relay finals contested at the Olympic or World Championship level. Great Britain has won six of those finals, including titles at the 2021 Olympics, 2023 World Championships, 2024 Olympics, and now the 2025 World Championships. Last summer, they became the first nation to defend Olympic gold with the same quartet. Their only losses since winning gold at the Tokyo Games came at the 2022 and 2024 World Championships, when the team was not at full strength.
“It [the gold] means the world to us,” said Richards. “I think every single time it gets harder and harder to try and defend that title, so I think we’ve all got to be so proud of ourselves, all four of us and the boys this morning, putting in those performances and getting ourselves on top of that podium again.”
The result could not have come at a better time. Team GB held its training camp at the same place as the American team in Phuket, Thailand and has also been battling illness this week. This is Great Britain’s first medal at the 2025 World Championships, six days into an eight-day competition.
“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t aware that we hadn’t got on the medal table yet,” said Richards. “We really wanted to put in a performance tonight and not just get ourselves onto the medal table, but get ourselves a gold and put us in a good position moving forward.”
A decade of excellence in the event gave the team plenty of reason to head into the event confident. One of the themes that Steve Buckley’s three-part documentary series “Four by Two” on Great Britain’s rise in the relay illustrated most prominently is how the early success of the relay squads elevated the nation’s depth. Many of the relay members Buckley talked to spoke about wanting to become a part of the relay—wanting to put their best foot forward to qualify, then to be in the mix for a spot in the final.
The competition has become extremely high in the event in Great Britian, it’s become premiere race of their national championships and closes the competition. The team’s clutch anchor—and Tokyo silver medalist—Duncan Scott told The Guardian at the Paris Games, “Up on the blocks I look at those guys in front of me, and you’ve got an Olympic champion in the 200m free, a World champion in the 200m free, and a World champion in the 200m free.”
The depth has risen so that the team can use Tokyo Olympic champion Tom Dean (who skipped the 200 free at British Trials) in the Singapore heats and he does not get put onto the finals relay. Instead, Jack McMillian—who has worked his way through the ranks of the relay—earned his first nod to swim in the relay final.
Though the lineup—and even the lineup order—has fluctuated in the last ten years, it was a familiar sight to see the Brits get out to the lead in the Singapore final. After missing out on the 200 free final, Richards swam 1:45.37 to put the team in the lead.
He handed the reins over to James Guy, the stalwart of this relay since 2015, who is having his best all-around season in years. Guy kept the team in the lead with a 1:45.00 split. McMillian backed up his 1:45.28 lead-off from the heats with a 1:45.65 in the evening. The Brits were still firmly in the game with 200 meters to go, though they were now running second after a fiery 1:43.45 split from Luke Hobson that put the Americans in the lead.
But then Scott dove into the water.
The 28-year-old has earned his reputation as a clutch anchor swimmer on a British relay, 4×200 freestyle or not. Scott often demurs to the media on the role he plays on the relays, telling The Guardian last summer that all he has to do is “float home” or Buckey that he’s been lucky that his leg has been a “lap of honor at the end” after the job his teammates have done for him on the first three legs.
It is a modest way to describe the integral part he’s played in the relay’s success though. His teammates certainly will not miss the opportunity to hype up what his skill, as Guy, McMillian, and Kieran Bird do in the third part of the “Four by Two” documentary. In Singapore, Richards said “anytime Duncan’s going in with a sniff of a chance at the podium, you’ve got to have some confidence…we’ve got the utmost faith in him to get the job done.”
And the results speak for themselves. Scott split 1:43.82 on the anchor on Friday, erasing the U.S’s lead on the first 50 meters. The swim was the second-fastest relay split in the field and the only other sub-1:44 behind Hobson’s time. This is the third time Scott’s fired off a 1:43 split in his career. He was a 1:43.45 at the Tokyo Games, and a 1:43.95 in Paris. That gives him three swims in the top 10 fastest 200 free relay splits all-time, the most of any swimmer.
Scott’s split pulled the British quartet away from the rest of the final for good, leaving the rest of the countries to fight for silver. He stopped the clock at 6:59.84, and the Brits were the only team in the field to crack 7:00. They’ve now broken that barrier four times in the last four years and own four of the eight fastest performances in the event.
“I said it to the boys, ‘we can’t think this is normal, this is pretty special,’” Scott shared. “And we can’t take it for granted because that was so hard-fought, and everyone’s looking at us now and challenging us…everyone’s put a big target on our backs now, so every single win is really special.”
Quick Hits
Marrit Steenbergen Repeats As 100 Freestyle World Champion
It’s back-to-back world titles for Marrit Steenbergen.
After flipping tied for third at the 50-meter mark, the 25-year-old Dutchwoman stormed home in a field-best 27.21 closing split to take the win. She clocked a 52.55, the third-fastest swim of her career, to get the job done ahead of Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan (52.67) and the U.S.’s Torri Huske (52.89).
Marrit Steenbergen (credit: Fabio Cetti)
Steenbergen is the first swimmer who won gold at the 2024 World Championships to defend their title in Singapore. She showed that she was on strong form earlier this meet, firing off a 51.9 100 freestyle split on Netherlands’ mixed 4×100 medley relay.
When asked what the world title meant to her, Steenbergen replied, “It means that I think I’m just getting back to where I want to be to race here. At the beginning of the season, I was like, okay, I want to make Worlds again, because I don’t [sic] know how my shape was going to be. Just to be here in the final and now to win, it’s crazy. I did not expect that after the Olympics.”
This is Steenbergen’s third-consecutive World Championships on the 100 freestyle podium. Before winning gold in 2024, she earned bronze in 2023 behind O’Callaghan and Siobhan Haughey.
The Netherlands almost put two women onto the podium. Milou van Wijk split 27.56 on the final 50 meters, moving from fifth to fourth. She nearly caught Huske, but stopped the clock .02 seconds behind the American, breaking 53 seconds for the first time with a lifetime best 52.91.
Hubert Kos Defends 200 Back Olympic Gold With European Record, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard Wins Second Bronze
As he did when he won his first world title in 2023, Hubert Kos came from behind to win 200 backstroke gold in Singapore. He split 28.60/29.95 to pass 100 backstroke champion Pieter Coetze and get his hand on the wall in a European record 1:53.19.
Pieter Coetze, Hubert Kos, and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (credit: Nardia Mulkerrins)
Kos admitted after that race that he wasn’t feeling his best and had even thrown up after the final. Despite not feeling his best, he put up the fastest time the event has seen in the last four years. That time was also the former European record that he broke–the 1:53.23 Evgeny Rylov swam at Russian Nationals in 2021. Kos was also nearly a full second faster than his former personal best of 1:54.14 from 2023.
Kos’ time makes him the fifth-fastest performer in history while Coetze earned silver in 1:53.36, moving up the all-time list to seventh.
Behind them, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard earned bronze in 1:54.62, just off the French record he set in the semifinals (1:54.47). This is Ndoye-Brouard’s second medal of the championships; earlier, he won bronze in the 100 backstroke by breaking 52-seconds for the first time in his career and taking over the French record.
I’m very happy, because now the level of my 100 is the same as my 200,” Ndoye-Brouard said. “It’s the first time that I can be successful at the top level in both races…the [medley relay] medal at Paris gave me a lot of confidence. I don’t have nothing to prove. I’m happy with myself, with my level in sport, and now it’s all just a bonus for me.”
Silvia Di Pietro Breaks Her 11-Year-Old Italian Record
Silvia Di Pietro (credit: Federica Muccichini e Giorgio Scala / DeepBlueMedia.eu)
11 years ago, Silvia Di Pietro set the women’s 50 butterfly Italian record at 25.78 while swimming at the 2014 European Championships. That record has stayed on the books since then. No one, not even Di Pietro herself, could lower it.
But after 11 years of trying, Di Pietro finally broke through in Singapore. During the event’s prelims, Di Pietro swam 25.49, eclipsing her previous record by .29 seconds.
Di Pietro continued to reach new levels during the semifinals. While she missed the record she swam in the heats, her 25.58 was enough to qualify for the final. At 31, she qualified for her first individual long-course World Championship final.
Continental and National Records
Women’s 100 Freestyle
Swimming for the Neutral Athletes – B committee, Daria Klepikova reset the Russian record in the women’s 100 freestyle for the second time in as many days. Klepikova swam 53.14 in the semifinals, but brought the record under 53-seconds for the first time in the final with a 52.98 for 4th place.Men’s 100 Butterfly
In the middle of a fast men’s 100 butterfly semifinal, Thomas Ceccon, the 100 backstroke Olympic champion, set an Italian record. Ceccon has already been on the podium twice in his individual races and put himself through to the 100 butterfly final in 5th with a 50.42. The swim undercuts Piero Codia‘s 50.64 mark from 2018 by .22 seconds. Ceccon now holds the Italian record in the long-course 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke, 50 butterfly, and 100 butterfly. Simon Bucher broke the Austrian record for the second time today during the men’s 100 fly semifinals. Bucher fired off a 51.16 in the heats but blew past that mark in the semifinals with a 50.88. The .28 second drop qualified him 8th for the final. Coming into the meet, Bucher held the record at 51.18 from his swim at the 2022 World Championships.Men’s 50 Freestyle
Janis Dzirkalis broke the men’s 50 freestyle Latvian record for the second time this year. After swimming a 22.47 at the Baltic States Championships in March, Dzirkalis took two-tenths off the record with a 22.27 during the heats in Singapore.Men’s 200 Backstroke
After not swimming a 200 backstroke lifetime best since 2021, Jan Cejka has now lowered the Czech record twice in two days. Cejka qualified for the final with a 1:55.46, his first time breaking 1:56. He did so again in the final, swimming a 1:55.37 to take another nine-hundredths off his mark.Women’s 50 Butterfly
Roos Vanotterdijk‘s amazing meet continues. This time, she lowered her Belgian record in the 50 butterfly, swimming 25.32. Her semifinal swim took .31 seconds off the record she set at the LEN European U23 Championships at the end of June. She qualified second for the final and will have another shot at the record (and a medal) tomorrow. Tamara Potocka broke her Slovak record in the heats of the women’s 50 butterfly. Potocka popped a 25.63, improving her record from the 25.86 she swam as her nation hosted the LEN European U23 Championships.Continental Medal Table Thru Day 6
Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total Germany 2 1 1 4 France 2 0 2 4 Romania 2 0 0 2 Italy 1 4 1 6 Netherlands 1 0 2 3 Hungary 1 0 1 2 Great Britain 1 0 0 1 Belgium 0 1 0 1 Poland 0 1 0 1 Switzerland 0 1 0 1
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