World Championships, Day 1 Men’s Prelims: Sam Short, Lukas Martens Set Up 400 Free Title Clash
The first final of the World Championships is expected to feature a heavyweight showdown in the men’s 400 freestyle. The last two world champions in the event, Australia’s Sam Short and Korea’s Kim Woo-min, will race alongside Olympic champion and world-record holder Lukas Martens to open the first medal session in Singapore.
The men’s action on day one also included the 50 butterfly, where Maxime Grousset and Ilya Kharun both put up strong performances, and 100 breaststroke, where Kirill Prigoda clocked the top time in the world this year. The session concluded with qualifying in the 400 freestyle relay.
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Men’s 400 Freestyle
Two years ago at the World Championships, Australia’s Sam Short put on a show in the 400 freestyle, winning the world title in 3:40.68 and coming within two-thirds of a second of a world record that had stood for 14 years. He went on to win silver in the 800 free and bronze in the 1500 free at that meet. However, Short has largely struggled since; he fell to fourth place in the event at the Olympics, missing the podium by 14-hundredths.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Lukas Martens has since emerged as the world’s dominant 400 freestyler. Martens won Olympic gold last year in Paris, and earlier this year, he finally knocked the legendary world record of Paul Biedermann from the books. Martens clocked 3:39.96, clipping the 3:40.07 that had stood since the supersuit era. But Short has responded in fine form since then, going 3:41.09 at Australian Trials in June, and the two will face off for the world title Sunday evening.
Short dominated heat four in prelims, coming within a second of world-record pace for much of the race before pulling off the pace down the stretch. He finished in 3:42.07, a second off his time from June but a half-second quicker than he went in the Olympic final. Martens followed that up by winning his heat comfortably in 3:43.81.
There was a gap behind the two top seeds, but the rest of the field was fairly tightly packed. Korea’s Kim Woo-min qualified third in 3:44.99 as he seeks to repeat the gold medal he won at last February’s Worlds in Doha. Fourth went to Bulgaria’s Petar Mitsin, who went 3:45.01 before the seeded heats. It took a time under 3:46 to reach the final as China’s Zhang Zhanshuo (3:45.26), Sweden’s Victor Johansson (3:45.72), Germany’s Oliver Klemet (3:45.72) and, Italy’s Marco de Tullio (3:45.88) reached the final.
The swimmers that missed the final included Australia’s Elijah Winnington, the 2022 world champion and last year’s Olympic winner, and the United States’ Rex Maurer. Winnington clocked 3:46.37 for 10th place while Maurer, whose time of 3:43.33 from last month’s U.S. Nationals, ended up 11th in 3:46.38. The other American, Luka Mijatovic, struggled mightily in his first World Championships swim, ending up 16th and almost 14 seconds off his runnerup effort from Nationals in 3:59.68.
Men’s 50 Butterfly
The first big swim of the prelims came from France’s Maxime Grousset, who blasted a time of 22.74 in the first seeded heat. He was just four hundredths off his season-best mark of 22.70 that ranks second in the world this year. Grousset previously won bronze in the event at the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka. Two heats later, Switzerland’s Noè Ponti equaled that time. Ponti won gold in the 50 and 100 fly at the Short Course World Championships in December after lowering the world record on multiple occasions in the fall.
In between those two performances, Ilya Kharun put forth a mark of 22.85. The Canadian who won Olympic bronze in both the 100 and 200 fly has the top time this year at 22.68. Portugal’s Diogo Ribeiro, the world champion last February, took fourth in the morning in 22.90, with the Netherlands’ Nyls Korstanje and Great Britain’s Ben Proud tying for fifth in 22.96. Greece’s Stergios Bilas took seventh in 23.04, and Italy’s Thomas Ceccon placed eighth in 23.06. Proud (2017) and Ceccon (2023) have also captured world titles in the event while Ceccon is best known for his backstroke skills, holding the world record in the 100 back and winning Olympic gold in Paris.
The remaining semifinalists included Canada’s Josh Liendo (23.16), Austria’s Simon Bucher (23.20), the United States’ Dare Rose (23.20), Brazil’s Gui Caribe (23.21), the Netherlands’ Sean Niewold (23.21), Egypt’s Abdelrahman Elaraby (23.21), the United States’ Michael Andrew (23.22) and Germany’s Luka Armbruster (23.28). Andrew is also a past medalist in this event, having won bronze in 2022 and silver last February
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
In an earlier phase of his career, Kirill Prigoda was a consistent contender in the men’s breaststroke events, winning bronze in the 100 breast at the 2017 World Championships and then claiming a short course world title in the 200 breast a year later. Like nearly all Russian swimmers, Prigoda was absent from international competition for several years, but he made a strong return with six medals at the Short Course World Championships in December, including three relay golds.
Now, Prigoda is in position for another medal performance after he blasted the top time in the world in the 100 breast prelims. Prigoda put forth a time of 58.53, surpassing the 58.61 posted by China’s Qin Haiyang earlier this year. Prigoda was one of three swimmers to crack 59 in the first of three circle-seeded heats, with Germany’s Lucas Matzerath (58.75) and Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi (58.84) following him to the wall. Martinenghi is the reigning Olympic champion in the event.
Fourth place in that heat was Caspar Corbeau (59.03), and no one else surpassed that time. Qin won his heat in 59.13 for fifth place while American Josh Matheny came through in his heat to clock 59.40 for sixth. Dong Zhihao, last year’s world champion in the 200 breast, came in seventh in 59.53.
The other semifinalists included Kyrgzystan’s Denis Petrashov (59.53), Italy’s Ludovico Viberti (59.56), neutral Belarussian athlete Ilya Shymanovich (59.59), Japan’s Taku Taniguchi (59.75), Great Britain’s Gregory Butler (59.87), neutral Russian swimmer Danil Semianinov (59.92), Lithuania’s Andrius Sidualskas (59.98) and the United States’ Campbell McKean (59.98). McKean entered the meet ranked No. 3 in the world, and he narrowly made it through as Korea’s Choi Dongyeol was just behind in 59.99.
Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay
The first session of the World Championships produced a mixed bag of results for the United States men, with both representatives missing the final of the 400 free and the swimmers in the 50 fly and 100 breast not coming close to the top spots. But the Americans remain favorites in the 400 free relay, with a top-seeded performance in prelims cementing that status as high-profile swimmers prepare to join the squad in the evening.
The leadoff swimmer was Shaine Casas, competing in a freestyle relay for the first time at a long course World Championships. He faded down the stretch on the way to a time of 48.58, but his teammates were dynamite. Jonny Kulow split 47.51 to put the Americans in the mix before Destin Lasco moved into the lead with his 47.60. Patrick Sammon finished it off with a 47.48 split that was tied for third-quickest in the entire field. The Americans’ final time was 3:11.17.
In the final, the Americans will insert Jack Alexy and likely Chris Guiliano, with Sammon and either Kulow or Lasco rounding out the squad. Alexy clocked a time of 46.99 at last month’s U.S. Nationals, making him one of only three swimmers at the meet to have ever been so quick.
Australia came in second at 3:11.29, only 0.12 back of the U.S. team, but the Aussies used their top-four finishers from last month’s selection meet. Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Max Giuliani handled the first three legs before Kyle Chalmers, a three-time Olympic medalist in the 100 free, came home in 47.54. The Australians won the world title in 2023 before earning Olympic silver in Paris.
Italy took third with a team of Carlos D’Ambrosio, Lorenzo Zazzeri, Leonardo Deplano and Manuel Frigo clocking 3:12.02. Expect Thomas Ceccon to join the group at night. China, with Wang Haoyu splitting 47.59 and Pan Zhanle coming home in 47.73, was fourth in 3:12.26, while Canada rode a 47.26 split from Josh Liendo, the quickest of the entire race, to a fifth-place mark of 3:12.64.
Great Britain’s Duncan Scott went 47.56 on the second leg, and his team took sixth in 3:12.69, while Hungary had a pair of 47s to open the relay from Nandor Nemeth and Hubert Kos, putting the team seventh (3:12.71). Lithuania was the surprise eighth-place team in 3:12.74, with Tomas Navikonis going 47.47, the second-best split of the morning behind Liendo, and Tomas Lukminas following that up with a 47.83.
Missing out on the final was the Neutral Athletes B group of Russian swimmers, who swam 3:12.87 in an early heat to come up barely short. Ivan Girev was the fastest swimmer for the NAB squad at 47.90 while Egor Kornev was being rested for a potential finals swim. For 10th-place Germany, Kaii Winkler fired off a split of 47.52, and 11th-place France had Yann le Goff going 47.55. Further down in the standings, Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk matched Sammon’s 47.48, and Spain’s Luka Hoek clocked 47.68. Croatia’s Jere Hribar led off in 47.93.
