S'pore's Gan Ching Hwee sets new 1,500m freestyle national record to reach World Championships final
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Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Americans finish as top swimming nation at WCH 2025 after women's 4x100m medley world record
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Americans Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske celebrating their women's 4x100m medley world record at the World Aquatics Championships Arena on Aug 3. SINGAPORE – Americans Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske provided a fitting finish to the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) on Aug 3, as they broke the women's 4x100m medley world record in 3min 49.34 at the WCH Arena, going below the previous mark of 3:49.63 set by the United States at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Australia's Kaylee McKeown, Ella Ramsay, Alexandria Perkins and Mollie O'Callaghan finished second in 3:52.67 and China's Peng Xuwei, Tang Qianting, Zhang Yufei and Cheng Yujie were third in 3:54.77. The Americans' record-breaking win brings the number of world records set during this meet at the specially built WCH Arena to three. Douglass, who was also part of team that lowered the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay world record on Aug 2, hailed the effort after the Americans had struggled with food poisoning at their training camp in Thailand. The 23-year-old said: ' It's not over till it's over. I'd say Team USA always knows how to finish with a bang. And I think it just sends a really positive message out to the viewers at home who didn't really believe in us. 'We had a higher gold-medal tally than we had in Fukuoka (nine this year, seven in 2023) under insanely terrible circumstances, to put it bluntly, so I'm so excited for our future.' While Summer McIntosh and her Canadian teammates were fifth behind the neutral athletes from Russian, it remained a summer to remember for the teenage sensation. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore No plans to fully liberalise cross-border ride-hailing services between Singapore and Johor: LTA Singapore LTA, Singapore bus operators reviewing Malaysia's request to start services from JB at 4am World Trump is winning his trade war, but Americans will pay the price Singapore President Tharman meets migrant workers who saved driver of car that fell into sinkhole Singapore Singapore must stay socially progressive while conserving its cultures: President Tharman Sport A 'wake-up call': National coach Gary Tan on Singapore swimmers' performances at WCH 2025 Opinion The charm – and drawbacks – of living in a time warp in Singapore Life KPop Demon Hunters to get sequels, expanded universe to include musical, live-action remake She won the women's 400m individual medley final in a championship record of 4min 25.78sec, quicker than her own 2023 mark of 4:27.11, to become the most bemedalled athlete of this meet with four golds and one bronze. The 18-year-old was peerless in front of a whistling and shrieking sold-out crowd at the 4,800-seat facility as she won by almost 7.5 seconds, with Australia's Jenna Forrester and Japan's Mio Narita taking joint-silver in 4:33.26. China's 12-year-old Yu Zidi (4:33.76) missed the podium by less than a second in a third individual event. Canadian Summer Mcintosh (left) and Frenchman Leon Marchand are named the best female and male swimmers of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO McIntosh, who was named the meet's Best Female Swimmer, said: 'It was very obvious that my goal was five golds. Time just didn't matter. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall the first five times. 'I fell short of that, but I think it's just going to keep me hungry and push, and keep moving forward. Even if I were to get five golds, I would still want more. That's just my mentality.' Meanwhile, Leon Marchand also sealed his individual medley double by touching the wall first over 400m in 4:04.73, almost four seconds ahead of Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita (4:08.32) and Russia's Ilia Borodin (4:09.16). The Frenchman, who was named the Best Male Swimmer after setting a men's 200m individual medley world record (1:52.69) earlier, said: 'The world record shows I still got the fire, that I still love this. 'I still want to keep going, and I saw a lot of things I can improve. 'So I'll try to prepare as best as I can for the European Championships. 'After that, I'll be back at it at the end of August in Austin with coach Bob (Bowman). 'We'll work on the IMs, maybe even the 400 free.' The 23-year-old later helped France claim silver in the men's 4x100m medley final in 3:27.96, alongside Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Maxime Grousset and Yann Le Goff. Russians Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Egor Kornev won gold in a championship record of 3:26.93, improving on the United States' 2023 mark of 3:27.20, as Americans Tommy Janton, Josh Matheny, Dare Rose, Jack Alexy took bronze in 3:28.62. There were many other standout performers as another championship record fell on the final day. Russian world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov won the men's 50m backstroke final in 23.68 to go under Briton Liam Tancock's longstanding time of 24.04 from 2009 and claim his first long-course world title ahead of joint silver medallists South African Pieter Coetze and Russian Pavel Samusenko (24.17). Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi flew the African flag high by completing the distance double, winning the men's 1,500m freestyle in 14:34.41 to finish ahead of German Sven Schwarz (14:35.69) and American Bobby Finke (14:36.60) and add to his 800m freestyle gold. Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte made it four consecutive women's 50m breaststroke golds since 2022 by winning in 29.55, ahead of China's Tang Qianting (30.03) and Italy's Benedetta Pilato (30.14). Australia's Meg Harris won the women's 50m freestyle final in 24.02, ahead of China's Wu Qingfeng (24.26) and Cheng Yujie (24.28) to add to the men's 50m freestyle gold by Cameron McEvoy . But it is the US who remain the best swimming nation with nine golds, one ahead of Australia, as freestyle specialist Katie Ledecky won the women's 800m and 1,500m golds, 4x200m silver and 400m freestyle bronze to get to within three gold medals of compatriot Michael Phelps' WCH record of 26 golds and 33 medals. Elsewhere, there were first WCH medals for Kyrgyzstan with Denis Petrashov's men's 100m breaststroke bronze, and Monaco with Lisa Pou's women's 10km open water bronze. In the overall medal table, China reigned for the third edition running with 15 golds, aided by their dominance in diving (nine out of 13 golds) and artistic swimming (four out of 11 golds), ahead of Australia (13 golds) and the US (10 golds). Among the highlights of the 24-day championships were Spain giving Felipe Perrone a fairy-tale gold finish in men's water polo; German Florian Wellbrock dominating open water swimming with four golds; Russian Aleksandr Maltsev's hat-trick of artistic swimming titles; Australia, Italy and Mexico's upset of China in some diving events; and Australian Rhiannan Iffland extending her unbeaten women's high diving streak to a fifth WCH. After Singapore 2025 organising committee co-chair Mark Chay handed over the WCH flag to representatives from 2027 hosts Hungary, he said: 'The last three weeks have brought us enthralling and inspiring performances in the water, and we're honoured to have witnessed these incredible feats from the world's best aquatics athletes. 'Singapore 2025 has been a great demonstration of the Singapore spirit, and it's been heartening to see how various stakeholders within the Singapore society worked together to deliver a spectacular championships.'
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
On swimming's last night, a thrilling wait: Will a world record happen again?
The extraordinary Leon Marchand set one world record in the 200 individual medley but could not repeat the feat in the 400 IM on the last night. The buzzer sounds. An Omega clock starts to tick. It's 8.04pm on the final day of the World Aquatics Championships and Leon Marchand, son of Olympians and cousin of Aquaman, is trying, in a manner of speaking, to defeat eight things in the 400m individual medley (IM). Seven other men and that clock. He wants a 1 by his name and perhaps also a WR. One is the greatest number, the other is the finest acronym. World Record. It's what I've come to see on this night. The WR is somewhat rare – the men's 400m IM record has been broken only thrice in the past 20 years – which is why they are unforgettable. People say this is a 'fast' pool but what is more readily verifiable is that Marchand, a Frenchman, is a fast fellow. Days earlier Chad le Clos, four-medal Olympian, pays him an Everest of a compliment. 'He's like a young Michael (Phelps). He's got everything. Speed, endurance, nerve under pressure.' Records are usually snipped, sliced and shaved. They're set by a fingernail and broken by an eyelash. The faster humans go, the tighter the margins logically become. Yet in the 200m IM on July 30, Marchand lops over a second off the world record. He doesn't break it, he mutilates it. Human potential, he reminds us, is a well whose depth we cannot comprehend. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore No plans to fully liberalise cross-border ride-hailing services between Singapore and Johor: LTA Singapore LTA, Singapore bus operators reviewing Malaysia's request to start services from JB at 4am World Trump is winning his trade war, but Americans will pay the price Singapore President Tharman meets migrant workers who saved driver of car that fell into sinkhole Singapore Singapore must stay socially progressive while conserving its cultures: President Tharman Sport A 'wake-up call': National coach Gary Tan on Singapore swimmers' performances at WCH 2025 Opinion The charm – and drawbacks – of living in a time warp in Singapore Life KPop Demon Hunters to get sequels, expanded universe to include musical, live-action remake If he doesn't break one on Aug 3, then maybe Summer McIntosh will in her 400m IM. At 8.19pm she dives in, a young woman whose age is only 18 yet her ambition is transparent. In the 200m butterfly, she won but marginally failed to break the WR and swore in annoyance. History had slipped away. Days later after coming third in the 800m, you could see defeat had stung. 'I hate losing more than I like winning,' she said. 'Moments like these are what I think about in training when I'm dying in a hard set and have to keep pushing.' Maybe this fury would push her to a WR. After all, this year she has already set three. The WR is proof of a species' advance. Through time humans in multiple nations are simply bigger, they eat smarter, train harder, study technique on computers and soothe bodies in ice baths. And so records tumble under the assault of science and ambition. In 1959, the men's 400m IM WR was 5min 8.80sec, now it is 4:02.50. The WR requires bravery, belief, temerity. 'I don't think limits,' Usain Bolt once tweeted. Phelps made the same point in the title of his autobiography which was No Limits. It's a language understood by only a few. Perhaps by the man who climbed 914m of sheer rock without a rope and the woman who descended over 120m into the ocean on a single breath. Will is their superpower, hard labour their preferred morning routine. Marchand leads from the first 50m and so does McIntosh in her race. In truth, they are chasing only themselves. The 400m IM records they pursue are ones which they own. As the race progresses, the blue line which marks the WR on television is ahead of them, the rest of the pack is way behind. Both these swimmers are flying yet how do they feel? Sometimes accelerating athletes can feel like a gale force, sometimes they can't tell a record is imminent. Regan Smith, the current 100m backstroke world-record holder, told The Straits Times days ago, 'I feel like I've had world-record swims where I feel lights-out incredible and I've had world-record swims where I feel like I'm crawling to the finish'. But once a WR is set, how must it feel? When Italy's Thomas Ceccon, the reigning 100m backstroke world-record holder was asked, he sighed. 'Everyone can win, right? But the world record is different because you are the fastest man alive. Ever. That's me, that's my name, and, yeah, it's very cool.' No athlete forgets their tilt at history. The day I interview Smith is, she says, exactly six years since the day she broke her first world record. 'I'll never forget the way that it felt because at that point I didn't think that I was that type of athlete who was capable of doing something like that.' Marchand and McIntosh are capable of anything on any day, but their first job on Aug 3 is to win and they leave with gold. Neither breaks a world record and yet they are out of this world. The Frenchman wins by 3.59 seconds, the Canadian by 7.48sec. He leaves with two individual golds, she with four. This last night of a long aquatic championships which began with a water polo game on July 11 ends with the 4x100m women's medley relay. The swimmers have to be tired, it's been hot, the tension thick, the days long with racing and yet the beauty of elite athletes is their commitment to striving. The US win in 3:49.34. The scoreboard says WR.
CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
Tottenham's Son bids emotional farewell in S Korea, Maddison suffers knee injury
SEOUL :Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min played what is expected to be his final match for the club in front of 64,773 fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Sunday, and teammate James Maddison was carried off with a knee injury. The 33-year-old Son, who is under contract until 2026, is set to leave Spurs after a decade. He led Spurs to their first trophy in 17 years with their win over Manchester United in the Europa League final in May. Sunday's friendly against Newcastle United ended 1-1, with Spurs forward Brennan Johnson scoring in the fourth minute and Newcastle winger Harvey Barnes equalising in the 38th. Son was substituted off in the 65th minute for new signing Mohammed Kudus. Son received a guard of honour from both Spurs and Newcastle players, along with a warm ovation from the crowd, as he bade a teary farewell. He is expected to stay in South Korea while the rest of the Spurs players fly to London. "Unbelievable scenes for Son from his teammates and the respect from the Newcastle players," Spurs manager Thomas Frank said. "First we had the walkaround and then the teammates gathered around and he was emotional. In the changing room it was more of the same... It was beautiful." Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said, "The reaction was instinctive from my players. It's not just his talent but the way he has carried himself over the years. I think he's seen as one of the game's great Premier League players." Son joined the north London club from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 and though he did not disclose his next destination, British media have linked him with a move to Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Maddison came on in the 75th minute but went down off the ball, clutching his knee, and appeared to be in considerable discomfort. The 28-year-old England international was taken off on a stretcher around the 86th minute. "We're pretty sure it was the same knee he injured before. I think sometimes in life and football things can be both beautiful and brutal," Frank said. Maddison suffered an injury to the same knee in May and missed the final part of last season.
