World Championships, Day 2 Prelims: Lilly King Barely Makes Semis of 100 Breast

World Championships
Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron

World Championships, Day 2 Prelims: Lilly King Barely Makes Semis of 100 Breast

The illness sweeping through the American camp has introduced a certain uncertainty to the proceedings at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. But they don’t have a monopoly on it.

To wit, the 100 breaststroke, in which world record-holder Lilly King nearly missed the semifinals and second seed Angharad Evans missed them by placing 18th.

That kind of upheaval has been prevalent in Singapore as Worlds reaches the second day of preliminaries Monday morning. The second day of prelims also brings a second event for Katie Ledecky in the 1,500 freestyle and a chance to see Regan Smith and Kaylee McKeown renew acquaintance in the women’s 100 backstroke. The five prelims events from the second day in Singapore:

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Women’s 100 backstroke

Regan Smith confidently stroked away from the final heat of six to set the fastest time in 58.20. Second was fellow American Katharine Berkoff in 58.55, .02 ahead of Kaylee McKeown of Australia, the three that comprised the podium at the Paris Olympics last summer.

All the expected names made it through without issue. China’s duo of Peng Xuwei and Wan Leitan are fourth and fifth, respectively. Roos Vanotterdijk continues an excellent summer by going 59.37 for seventh. Taylor Ruck and Kylie Masse are both safely in the semifinals representing Canada, as is Marrit Steenbergen in a tie for 11th with Carmen Weiler Sastre.

Men’s 100 backstroke

It’s been a while since the full men’s 100 backstroke field has been assembled, thanks to the exclusion of Russia from international competition since 2022. Monday’s preliminaries at the 2025 World Championships is a chance to see the country’s backstroke contingent in action again.

Kliment Kolesnikov was second, the Neutral Athlete second in 52.57, while world junior record holder Miron Lifintsev finished sixth. The two from Russia, swimming for the Neutral Athletes B, were seeded second and fourth, respectively, coming in.

Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of France swam a best time of 52.30 to set the pace in prelims. That’s within .19 seconds of a 15-year-old French record belonging to Camille Lacourt.

Hubert Kos showed off his speed work in Texas, the 200 specialist going 52.60 for the third-best time. Greece’s Apostolou Christou. There’s an Italian in fifth, but it isn’t Thomas Ceccon. Instead, it’s Christian Bacico in 52.72. Ceccon was 13th in 53.65, in the final by just over a tenth. (Recall that he was 12th in prelims in Paris before winning gold.)

The semifinals, however, will proceed without an American, the longtime dominant nation in the stroke shut out completely. Tommy Janton finished 18th in his first Worlds swim in 53.87. Hope that the gastroenteritis that has swept through the team is abating wasn’t fostered by Jack Aikins finishing 44th in 56.54. Janton was 53.00 at trials, Aikins 53.19.

Pieter Coetze seventh and Ksawery Masiuk eighth. Among the other stragglers was China’s Xu Jiayu, the 2017 and 2019 champion into semis in 14th.

Women’s 100 breaststroke

The 100 breast was surprising for who didn’t make the semifinal, and for who almost didn’t.

Lilly King, in her final World Championships, finished 15th in semis, just .06 under the cut. The second seed, Angharad Evans of Great Britain, was 18th, missing out on a second swim altogether.

Mona McSharry of Ireland is the top seed in the semis, winning the sixth and final heat with a time of 1:05.99. Second was Heat 5 winner Anna Elendt in 1:06.01. The top 16 spots were blanketed by 0.97 seconds.

King almost found herself on the wrong side of that. She was running fifth in an extremely slow heat 4, the first of three circle-seeded heats. Had she finished there, she would have been out. But she surged to second in 1:06.93, getting .06 under the cut.

The winner of that sluggish fourth heat was Florine Gaspard of Belgium, out of lane 9 (not a typo). She went 1:06.89 for 14th overall. Only she, King and Alina Zmushka made it back from Heat 4.

Heat 5 brought Elendt, followed by Satomi Suzuki of Japan third overall in 1:06.13 and Evgeniia Chikunova fourth overall in 1:06.19. Kotryna Teterevkova was fifth overall from the final heat, followed closely by Kate Douglass and Ruta Meilutyte in ninth. Both Italians, Lisa Angiolini and Anita Bottazzo, made it back.

Evans went 1:07.04. Her seed time was 1:05.37. She was .08 behind Zmushka for the last semis spot. Both Aussies also missed out, Ella Ramsay 21st and 16-year-old Sienna Toohey 22nd.

Men’s 200 freestyle

David Popovici surged past Luke Hobson on the final meters of the final heat of six to secure the top seed in the 200 free. The Romanian went 1:45.43. Hobson went 1:45.61, despite spotting the field a tenth with a slow start.

Third was Matt Richards, the winner of the fifth heat, in 1:45.66. Gabriel Jett won the fourth heat in 1:45.91 for fourth overall, as at least two American swimmers appear gastrointestinally unscathed.

Japan’s Tatsuya Murasa was sixth, followed by Flynn Southam of Australia. The other Aussie, Ed Sommerville, was the first one out in 17th. Lucas Henveaux and Sun-Woo Hwang round out the top eight. James Guy is 10th.

Missing out on semis is Pan Zhanle, the 100 world record holder whose bid to branch out to 200 resulted in a time of 1:47.46 that landed 22nd.

Women’s 1,500 freestyle

Katie Ledecky and Lani Pallister proved they’re in good form via the 400 free on Sunday. That continued Monday.

Ledecky set the pace in the women’s 1,500 freestyle with a time of 15:36.68, the world record holder typically controlled and typically dominant. The time is .08 seconds off her performance at trials in June. It’s the 17th-fastest performance in history, giving Ledecky the 24 fastest performances in this event all-time.

“It was good,” Ledecky said. “I felt good, and I’m excited for tomorrow.”

Pallister, who was fourth in the 400 free, finished second in 15:46.95. She metered her efforts to get out to a big lead in the first of two circle-seeded heats, then shut it down late. Simona Quadarella of Italy got within a half-second of her, third in 15:47.43.

Home-country hope Ching Hwee Gan finished fourth in 16:01.29. It’s a national record by more than nine seconds, improving her performance from the Paris Olympics.

Li Bingjie, who finished second in the 400 free, is fifth in 16:02.31. Sixth was Moesha Johnson, the Aussie fresh off golds in the 5-kilometer and 10k open water. Rounding out the final eight are Paris silver medalist Anastasiia Kirpichnikova in seventh (16:06.97) and China’s Yang Peiqi in eighth (16:08.91).

That leaves no room for Paris bronze medalist Isabel Gose, the German finishing as the first alternate. The other American, Jillian Cox, got off to a rough start but rallied late, though still 1.5 seconds off eighth. She went 16:09.74, which is within four seconds of her time from trials, where she finished third (Claire Weinstein passed on the chance to swim the 1,500 in Singapore).

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