Katie Ledecky wins #6, Pieter Coetze scares 100m back world record on night three

Men’s 200m freestyle - David Popovici the master of the 200m

After two rounds of the 200m freestyle in Singapore, nobody looked more calculated than Romania’s David Popovici. Conserving speed and energy, forbidding himself from going all out for 200 meters in the heats and semis, Popovici, the Olympic champion from 2024 and World champion from 2022, looked to run away from the field.

It didn’t come easy for the 21-year-old, coached by Adrian Radulescu, who faced serious pressure from American Luke Hobson, who led the first 150 meters. Hobson took it to the Olympic champion, leading at the second and third turns, and was building to a big finish. These two led the world rankings this season and have taken the world inside 1:44 and will continue to transform this event in the future.

Hobson, who trains with coach Bob Bowman at the University of Texas, was run down, though, by Popovici for the gold, the Romanian coming home in 26.43 to Hobson’s 27.39.

“It’s a lot of ‘I have to do this’, a lot of self-talk,” Popovici said. “Even if not winning, I’m telling myself that I cannot let go. I cannot go easy, I have to give it my best. I owe myself at least that.”

Popovici won his second World title at 1:43.53, while Hobson won silver at 1:43.84.

Hobson elevated his bronze from Doha 2024 as the short course world record holder was just off his 1:43.73 best time from June.

“Obviously I always wanted to go for the win and I’ve been working towards it for a couple of years now, and I just gotta keep working towards it,” Hobson said. “Overall though, I was really happy with that swim. Great time. It’s great to have two people under 1:44 in the finals again, so hopefully many more great races to come.”

Japan’s Tatsuya Murasa, the youngest in the field, came from eighth at the 100m mark to third at the 200m, coming home in 26.66, faster than everyone except for Popovici, to win the bronze at 1:44.54. This improves his lifetime best of 1:45.39 as he won Japan’s first 200m freestyle medal since Katushiro Matsumoto won silver in Gwangju 2019.

Murasa, age 18, was born the same day Michael Phelps won the 200m freestyle in Melbourne 2007 as he is coached by Toru Horinouchi in Tokyo.

“I went out in 51.0 for the first half,” Murasa said. “Up until the semifinals, I had been attacking the first 50 meters, but before the final, I discussed with my coach and we decided to push from 50m to 100m, and then connect that to the 150m mark so I could lift my pace at the end. I think I was really able to raise my speed in the last 50m, so the strategy worked. I swam that last 50m faster than I expected, and I think that’s the kind of performance you can only bring out in a world championship final.

“I thought I could win a medal as long as I didn’t fall behind Popovici, so I focused on not letting him get away—in fact, I swam with the intention of overtaking him. I was able to approach the race calmly and enjoy it. I had done some tough training in Sierra Nevada, so I was confident. I believed it was important to focus on swimming my own race. Even though I was surrounded by athletes I admire in the call room, I managed to stay composed in that environment.”

Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo, the champ from Doha 2024 and the silver medalist from Budapest 2022 and bronze from Fukuoka 2023, was unable to make his fourth straight podium at age 22, touching fourth at 1:44.72.

Poland’s Kamil Sieradzki (1:45.22), Italy’s Carlos D’Ambrosio (1:45.27), Great Britain’s James Guy (1:45.28) and United States’s Gabriel Jett (1:45.92) also competed in the championship final.

Women’s 1500m freestyle - Katie Ledecky wins #6

For the sixth time at the World Aquatics Championships, American Katie Ledecky dominated the 1500m freestyle. On Tuesday night, behind a blistering first 1000 meters where she was under her world record pace from 2018, Ledecky swam the fifth fastest time in history at 15:26.44. It wasn’t her fastest of the year as her 15:24 from April leads the world rankings, but she won her career 17th individual gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships, adding to her six from the 800m freestyle, four from the 400m, and one from the 200m.

Ledecky, coached by Anthony Nesty at the University of Florida, won the United States’ second gold medal of these championships in swimming.

“I kind of had a sense that I was probably out pretty fast, because Lani tends to take it out fast, and just having her right by my side for such a long portion really kept me on my toes and kept me moving forward,” Ledecky said. “So I was hopeful that as I kind of extended, I was able to hold that pace. I wasn't quite sure where I was at. I was pretty confident I was in the 20s, just wasn't sure how low into the 20s I was when I touched the wall. So I'm happy with it.”

Italy’s Simona Quadarella swam the best race of her life in winning silver at 15:31.79. The swim is a new European record for the 27-year-old, who moved up to number two all-time in the process. Quadarella has won a medal at five of the last six World Championships in this event, a testament to her longevity and drive.

“I’m really happy and emotional about my race results, and I’m very proud that I managed to get so close to Katie,” Quadarella said. “I tried to start quite slowly, check out the other girls, then try to push up and overtake Lani in the second half of the race. I was really happy, and tried to increase my speed as much as I could before the race ended.”

Australia’s Lani Pallister gave Ledecky a scare on the first 400m, flipping with the American. After a 3:58 and a fourth place finish in the 400m on Sunday, Pallister proved she is in fine form this week in Singapore. But the pace proved to be too hot for Pallister, who faded badly over the last 500 meters to win bronze at 15:41.18. The time is just off her lifetime best as she was 15:39 in June, but it is her second individual medal at the World Aquatics Championships, matching her bronze in the 1500m from Budapest 2022.

“I only race Katie three more times in the 1500m before the LA Olympics, so for me I was just trying to stick with her for as long as I can and see how long I could hold on for,” Pallister said. “I was actually pretty worried that LI Bingjie was gonna come over the top of me like she did in the 400m. From like about 900 metres in it was just about holding on at that point.

“I reckon my last 50m was like a 33, like I did not move. But you can’t wipe the smile off my face. I really had a lot of fun racing that, and any time I’m in the pool with Katie, Simona, and those girls, it’s really special. It’s back to training for that one and working on my back end for that one, but yeah, I’m really happy.”

The Singaporean President, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, was in attendance Tuesday night to watch the likes of Ching Hwee Gan compete for Team Singapore. Gan broke the national record in the heats at 16:01.29 in advancing to the final as she finished seventh in the final at 16:03.51. She was the first finalist for Singapore at the World Aquatics Championships since 2022.

“It’s always an honour to represent Singapore,” Gan said. “Just going out there, putting myself out there, racing without really much expectations. As my coach said, this was like a bonus race, if anything. I just wanted to go there and see how I do, especially with the turnaround from yesterday morning to today, I think it’s the first time I did two 1500m races in such close succession. I’m pretty happy with it overall.”

China’s Li Bingjie (15:49.54) finished fourth in the final after she won silver in Sunday’s 400m final in beating Ledecky. France’s Anastasiia Kirpichnikova (15:57.40), who won the Olympic silver medal last year, finished fifth.

Australia’s Moesha Johnson (16:02.45), who won the 5km and 10km in the open water swimming programme at these championships, finished seventh ahead of China’s Yang Peiqi (16:04.93).

Women’s 100m backstroke - Kaylee McKeown keeps the gold, beats Smith again

For the third year in a row, there was a build-up over the matchup and rivalry between the two fastest 100m backstrokers in history - Kaylee McKeown of Australia and Regan Smith of the United States, and for the third year in a row, it was the same result.

McKeown won the gold (57.16). Smith won the silver (57.35). Smith had the top time in semis, McKeown in the final. It was the fastest either of them have swum at the World Championships, with McKeown swimming her best time to just miss Smith’s world record of 57.13 from last year.

“I’m really really proud,” McKeown, coached by Michael Sage, said. “It’s a little bit emotional, I’ve worked so hard just to get myself into a happy state and it’s just what I’ve been focusing on. I think it goes to show that a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer. I have trained hard but I wasn’t expecting to make a personal best tonight.”

Since 2019, those two have traded the world record back and forth, and have dominated the race since, taking it into uncharted territory.

Smith will keep the world record, but has not beaten McKeown head to head since 2019.

“This was my third fastest swim ever, so I’m incredibly pleased with it,” Smith said. “It was a really good execution, and at the end of the day, America as a whole had the odds stacked against us. We had a really unfortunate situation happen to us during a training camp, and I did not think I was going to go for 57.35.

“To come up with a silver, I can’t really control the place of the medal, but what I can control is how fast I swim and how well I can do my race, and I think I did an incredible job, especially under the circumstances.”

The bronze went the way of American Katharine Berkoff (58.15), who has been the third wheel in three straight McKeown v. Smith duels. Berkoff, age 24, matched her bronze from Fukuoka 2023 and Paris 2024 as she is coached by Braden Holloway at North Carolina State University.

“I’m really happy with that swim,” Berkoff said. “It was a really tough week, just getting so sick, and I finally feel a lot better today. So I was super excited to wake up and feel decent. And I was super happy with that time, given the whole situation.”

Canada’s Kylie Masse (58.42), who was the World champ back in Budapest 2017 and Gwangju 2019, finished fourth and just off the podium. Masse has been in every major final in the 100m backstroke since winning Olympic bronze back in Rio 2016 and is still swimming at the top of her game at age 29.

China’s Peng Xuwei (59.10), France’s Mary-Ambre Moluh (59.48), Canada’s Taylor Ruck (59.59) and France’s Pauline Mahieu (59.60) also swam in the championship final.

Men’s 100m backstroke - Pieter Coetze proves 51 was no fluke

Earlier this month, South Africa’s Pieter Coetze swam 51.99 in the 100m backstroke at the World University Games in Germany, becoming the eighth man in history to swim inside 52 seconds. At these World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, Coetze looked sleepy through the first two rounds, not showing his full cards as the attention seemed diverted to others in the field.

On Tuesday night at the newly built World Championships Arena, the fastest 100m backstroke final in history was on full display with 52.5 sitting eighth after the semi-finals, the fastest it has ever taken to make a final in history. Coetze, age 21, took down the Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon to win South Africa’s ever World title in this event at 51.85, moving himself up to tied for third all-time with Ryan Murphy.

“It’s amazing,” Coetze said. “To call myself a world champion in a field like that. I don’t even think about my career, it’s just the feeling right now, I’m trying to soak it all in and can’t really put it into words.”

“I’m over the moon, I don’t even know what to say. To win in a field like that. Kolesnikov, Ceccon, all those big names. And I knew it was going to be a big race.”

Coetze, coached by Rocco Meiring, was third at the halfway point and came home at 26.90 to break the African record. He is the first South African World champion in the 100m backstroke.

“Our country loves sports,” Coetze said. “You can see that when our rugby teams play, in cricket, soccer, football, all of that stuff. We love sports in our country, and sports really unites our people. So to do it for the country means much more than to get the win for myself.”

Ceccon turned eighth at halfway and came home in 26.51 to grab silver at 51.90, matching his effort from Fukuoka 2023 as this is his first time inside 52 since he broke the world record in 2022. Like the aforementioned Smith, his record will remain, but he will only come home with silver. It’s his third medal of these championships after silver in the 4x100m freestyle on Sunday and bronze in the 50m butterfly on Monday.

“I wasn’t aware of the eighth place in the first 50m,” Ceccon said. “I said to myself, ‘if I beat Kliment Kolesnikov then maybe I will win’ but it was not that case. My plan was to go, not slow the first 50m, but controlled. The second 50m was pretty good, but overall the time was faster than Olympic time so it’s still good. I’m super happy with that (time). I still think I can go faster than that.”

Ceccon predicted last night it wouldn’t take a world record to win, but a 51 would be needed to make the podium, and he was correct. France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (51.92), swimming from lane one, moved from seventh at 50 meters to third at the finish to become the ninth man inside 52, lowering his best from 52.30 to move up to sixth all-time.

Ndoye-Brouard, age 25, won his first ever medal at the World Aquatics Championships after he was seventh in Paris last summer.

“I knew that in Lane 1, nobody would see me, so it was a little bit easier,” Ndoye-Brouard said. “This medal means a lot. It’s been three championships where I finished not on the podium. Fourth, five, seventh at the Olympics, so I really wanted this medal so much.”

Hungary’s Hubert Kos (52.20) was fourth after he was the top seed after the semi-finals. Kos will be the man to beat in the 200m later in the week as the Olympic champion from 2024 and World champ from 2023.

Great Britain’s Oliver Morgan (52.37) finished fifth ahead of 50m world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov (52.38) as those two led at 50 meters.

World Short Course champ Miron Lifintsev (52.51) finished seventh ahead of Greece’s Apostolos Christou (52.62).

Women’s 100m breaststroke - Anna Elendt stuns from lane one

The race played out almost exactly as expected, until it didn’t. Germany’s Anna Elendt, who swam out in lane one, shocked the field in winning the gold medal at 1:05.19, lowering her best time from 1:05.58 to win Germany’s first World title on the women’s side since Rome 2009.

Elendt, who swims for coach Carol Capitani at the University of Texas in the United States, rebounded from a disappointing showing at the Paris Olympics where she finished 20th and didn’t advance past the heats.

“I am so speechless,” Elendt said. “When I knew I was going to start from Lane 1, I was only thinking about my coach, who always used to say, ‘If you have a lane, you have a chance’. I was following that. Just doing everything we worked on in practice, doing my underwaters. It worked out so well.

“I was so speechless. I saw the little red light that you have at the blocks, so I knew immediately that I was either one, two or three. And then seeing the one on the scoreboard, I was so speechless, especially with the time. I’m so happy with it.”

The race was expected to be a duel between the Olympic silver medalist Tang Qianting of China and Olympic 200m champion Kate Douglass of the United States. It was expected Tang would be leading at 75 meters and if Douglass had enough space with 25m to go that she could run her down.

Predictably, Tang had the lead at 50m at 29.84, with Douglass in fourth at 30.64. The race played perfectly into Douglass’s hands, who dropped the 200m IM from her program in favor of this event, but she didn’t have the speed to match Elendt as the 24-year-old American won silver at 1:05.27 with Tang, age 21, winning bronze at 1:05.64.

“This is the first time I’ve ever focused on (the 100m breaststroke),” Douglass said. “This is the first year I’ve ever swam the 100m while tapered and rested at a meet. So, I’m excited to keep focusing on it in the future. I just surprised myself. I feel like I’m still learning how to swim this race and I took a lot more strokes than usual so I think it was a learning curve for me.”

“It has been a very exciting night for us. I think the first day was a little shaky for everyone, with a few pulling out of races and such. I think we’ve done a good job of bouncing back and just kind of showing that we’re here, we’re ready to race and we’re really happy with how we’re doing.”

“The result makes me feel very confident about the 50m race. It’s not too far from my peak,” Tang said. “I haven’t been feeling my best in the past month. I’ve been feeling fatigued, and it’s only in the last two days that I’ve been able to recover a bit more. That said, in terms of technique and mentality, I’m still quite mature in those aspects, so those weren’t too big of an issue for me. I’ll just be me.”

Japan’s Satomi Suzuki, one of the oldest competitors at these championships at age 34, nearly run down Tang for bronze as she finished fourth at 1:05.78 in a new lifetime best in her fifth World Aquatics Championships.

200m world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova (1:06.04) finished fifth overall ahead of Italy’s Anita Bottazzo (1:06.06), Alina Zmushka (1:06.38) and Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova (1:06.61).

Semis wrap

Men’s 50m breaststroke

100m champion Qin Haiyang of China put up the top time as the 2023 World champ looks to be the heavy favorite against a bunch of unproven up-and-comers after his 26.52 in the semi-finals. Only two other men in tomorrow’s final have advanced to a World Championships final before in Italy’s Simone Cerasuolo (26.64), seeded second, and Kirill Prigoda (26.92), seeded seventh.

Ivan Kozhakin (26.66) is seeded third ahead of Koen de Groot (26.71) of the Netherlands, South Africa’s Chris Smith (26.77) and Germany’s Melvin Imoudu (26.77), each making their Worlds finals debuts.

Austria’s Luka Mladenovic (26.93), who was the 2022 World Juniors champ in the 100m breaststroke, won the swim-off for eighth place over France’s Antoine Viquerat (26.93) at 26.97.

Notably, defending silver medalist Nicolo Martinenghi (27.03) of Italy and short course meters world record holder Emre Sakci (27.04) of Turkiye did not advance to the championship final.

Also of note, Namibia’s Ronan Wantenaar finished tied for 10th at 26.94 as a World Aquatics Scholarship Athlete.

Women’s 200m freestyle

American Claire Weinstein swam a lifetime best in leading the semi-finalists into tomorrow’s final at 1:54.69. Weinstein scratched the 400m freestyle earlier in the championships due to the after effects of the acute gastroenteritis illness that affected the American team on its training camp in Thailand.

Weinstein showed no effects of the illness in the 200m semi-finals however, leading the Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan (1:55.49) of Australia, and last year’s Worlds silver medalist Erika Fairweather (1:55.52). Even though O’Callaghan is the Olympic champion and #2 all-time, this race appears to be wide open.

Czechia’s Barbora Seemanova (1:55.63) advanced to the final in fourth as she has yet to win a medal at the World Aquatics Championships.

Australia’s Jamie Perkins (1:55.89), Great Britain’s Freya Colbert (1:55.91), China’s Li Bingjie (1:55.98) and the United States’s Erin Gemmell (1:56.03) also advanced to the championship final.

Men’s 200m butterfly

Through two rounds of the 200m butterfly, American Luca Urlando (1:52.84) turned in two 1:52’s ahead of tomorrow’s final where he is the top seed. Urlando is looking to be the first American male since Michael Phelps in Shanghai 2011 to win the 200m butterfly World title. Urlando was lined up to be “the next Michael Phelps” as a teenager when he was World Junior champ in 2019, but injuries got in the way, hindering his career the last few years. But he is swimming the way people thought he could, and ready to deliver tomorrow.

Urlando’s biggest challenger will be Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski (1:53.61), who was the silver medalist in Fukuoka 2023. His twin brother Michal Chmielewski (1:55.30) finished 11th and out of the final.

Fellow American Carson Foster (1:54.30) is seeded fourth as those two, Urlando and Foster, grew up together on the US junior team and could share the podium tomorrow.

China’s Chen Juner closed hard in grabbing the third seed at 1:54.02 ahead of the likes of Olympic bronze medalist Ilya Kharun (1:54.43) and last year’s silver medalist from Doha Alberto Razzetti (1:54.47) of Italy.

Italy’s Federico Burdisso (1:54.87) and Australia’s Harrison Turner (1:54.94) also advanced to the championship final.

Men’s 800m freestyle

Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi set the pace in the 800m freestyle heats, turning in the top time at 7:41.58, lowering his lifetime best from Paris last year to move to 17th all-time. Jaouadi, age 20, is looking to win his first career medal at the World Aquatics Championships.

Australia’s Samuel Short, the silver medalist from Sunday’s 400m freestyle, is seeded second at 7:42.22 as the 2023 Worlds silver medalist is ahead of the top ranked swimmer from 2025 in Germany’s Sven Schwarz (7:43.60).

“I felt so good,” Short said. “I made my mistake from day one in the 400m free, going pretty hard in the morning, so I had a lot left in the tank there.”

American Bobby Finke (7:44.02) is seeded fourth as he won Olympic silver last year and was the World champ in Budapest 2022.

“The goal is to make it back and that’s what we did so I’m just happy to get that done,” Finke said.

Sweden’s Victor Johansson (7:44.81) dropped a massive lifetime best as he was a 7:49 earlier this year. Turkiye’s Kuzey Tuncelli (7:45.13) also advanced to the final at age 17, ahead of Sunday’s 400m champ Lukas Martens (7:45.54) of Germany.

Last year’s Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen (7:46.36) of Ireland finished eighth overall after getting fifth in his heat.

“That was probably one of the worst swims I’ve done in a long time,” Wiffen said. “I’m just happy that I was able to finish on a 7:46 around my season best but that’s definitely not the best I’ve been in a while but I think whatever we’re overcoming right now, we’re only going to come back stronger.”

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