Swimming at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre freestyle

Men's 200 metre freestyle at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships
Venue	World Aquatics Championships Arena
Location	Singapore Sports Hub, Kallang
Dates	28 July (heats and semifinals) 29 July (final)
Competitors	59 from 53 nations
Winning time	1:43.53
Medalists
David Popovici    Romania   Luke Hobson    United States   Tatsuya Murasa    Japan
←  2024 2027  →

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 28 to 29 July 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore. ^{[1] [2]}

Background

The event featured one of the fastest fields since the supersuit era. Romania’s David Popovici entered as the top seed with the 1:43.13 he swam at the 2024 European Championships, the closest he has been to his 1:42.97 best, and he also leads the 2025 world rankings with 1:43.64. The United States’ Luke Hobson follows with a 1:43.73 from the 2025 US Nationals. Great Britain’s Matt Richards and the US’ Gabriel Jett were seeded in 1:44.69 and 1:44.70 respectively. Other key contenders included Lithuania’s Danas Rapšys, South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo, Australia’s Edward Sommerville, and China’s Pan Zhanle, all of whom had recorded sub-1:45 times. ^[3]

Qualification

Further information: Swimming at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships § Qualification

Each National Federation was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but they could do so only if both of them had attained the "A" standard qualification time at approved qualifying events. For this event, the "A" standard qualification time was 1:46.70. Federations could enter one athlete into the event if they met the "B" standard qualification time. For this event, the "B" standard qualification time was 1:50.43. Athletes could also enter the event if they had met an "A" or "B" standard in a different event and their Federation had not entered anyone else. Additional considerations applied to Federations who had few swimmers enter through the standard qualification times. Federations in this category could at least enter two men and two women to the competition, all of whom could enter into up to two events. ^{[4] [5]}

Top 10 fastest qualification times ^{[note 1] [6] [2]}

Swimmer	Country	Time	Competition
Luke Hobson	United States	1:43.73	2025 United States Championships
Matt Richards	Great Britain	1:44.69	2024 British Championships
Gabriel Jett	United States	1:44.70	2025 United States Championships
Hwang Sun-woo	South Korea	1:44.90	2024 Korean Championships
Edward Sommerville	Australia	1:44.93	2025 Australian Trials
James Guy	Great Britain	1:45.04	2024 Summer Olympics
David Popovici	Romania	1:45.07	2025 Romanian Championships
Pan Zhanle	China	1:45.45	2025 Chinese Championships
Danas Rapsys	Lithuania	1:45.46	2024 Summer Olympics

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows. ^[7]

World record	Paul Biedermann  (GER)	1:42.00	Rome, Italy	28 July 2009
Competition record	Paul Biedermann (GER)	1:42.00	Rome, Italy	28 July 2009

Heats

The heats took place on 28 July 11:04. ^{[8] [9]}

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	6	3	David Popovici	Romania	1:45.43	Q
2	6	4	Luke Hobson	United States	1:45.61	Q
3	5	4	Matt Richards	Great Britain	1:45.66	Q
4	4	4	Gabriel Jett	United States	1:45.91	Q
5	6	5	Tatsuya Murasa	Japan	1:45.92	Q
6	5	6	Flynn Southam	Australia	1:46.00	Q
7	6	7	Lucas Henveaux	Belgium	1:46.03	Q, NR
8	6	5	Hwang Sun-woo	South Korea	1:46.12	Q
9	5	7	Zhang Zhanshuo	China	1:46.17	Q
10	4	5	James Guy	Great Britain	1:46.19	Q
11	6	8	Dimitrios Markos	Greece	1:46.28	Q, NR [10]
12	4	2	Kamil Sieradzki	Poland	1:46.31	Q
13	4	6	Filippo Megli	Italy	1:46.39	Q
14	4	8	Sander Sorensen	Norway	1:46.63	Q
15	6	0	Evan Bailey	Ireland	1:46.66	Q, = NR
16	5	2	Carlos D'Ambrosio	Italy	1:46.67	Q
17	5	5	Edward Sommerville	Australia	1:46.72
18	6	2	Robin Hanson	Sweden	1:46.96
19	3	5	Oliver Søgaard-Andersen	Denmark	1:47.25
20	4	1	Tomas Koski	Finland	1:47.34
21	5	1	Lee Ho-joon	South Korea	1:47.36
22	5	3	Pan Zhanle	China	1:47.46
23	5	0	Alexey Glivinskiy	Israel	1:47.54
24	4	3	Danas Rapšys	Lithuania	1:47.58
25	2	4	Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri	Luxembourg	1:47.74	NR [10]
26	3	7	Petar Mitsin	Bulgaria	1:47.88
27	4	7	Antonio Djakovic	Switzerland	1:47.96
28	6	9	Velimir Stjepanović	Serbia	1:48.04
29	4	0	Guilherme Costa	Brazil	1:48.06
30	3	0	Balázs Holló	Hungary	1:48.09
31	3	6	Khiew Hoe Yean	Malaysia	1:48.10
32	5	9	Matthew Sates	South Africa	1:48.45
33	3	4	Miguel Pérez-Godoy	Spain	1:48.46
34	3	8	Kenan Dračić	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1:48.59
35	5	8	Niko Janković	Croatia	1:48.74
36	3	1	Juan Morales	Colombia	1:48.95
37	6	1	Antoine Sauve	Canada	1:49.19
38	3	3	Sašo Boškan	Slovenia	1:49.47
39	3	9	František Jablcnik	Slovakia	1:50.21
40	3	2	Jonathan Tan	Singapore	1:50.56
41	2	2	Enkhtamir Batbayar	Mongolia	1:50.83	NR [11]
42	2	5	Adrian Eichler	Philippines	1:51.39
43	2	6	Sajan Prakash	India	1:51.57
44	4	9	Nikoli Blackman	Trinidad and Tobago	1:51.63
45	2	3	Pongpanod Trithan	Thailand	1:51.66
46	2	7	Omar Abbass	Syria	1:53.11
47	2	0	Sauod Al-Shamroukh	Kuwait	1:54.61
48	2	8	Sebastian Serafeim	Honduras	1:55.85
49	2	1	Alberto Vega	Costa Rica	1:55.87
50	1	7	Lucas de los Santos	Uruguay	1:56.34
51	1	3	Andrey Villarreal Bernal	Panama	1:57.94
52	2	9	Kaeden Gleason	Virgin Islands	1:58.83
53	1	5	Mohammed Jibali	Libya	1:58.97
54	1	8	Binura Thalagala	Sri Lanka	1:58.98
55	1	4	Phone Pyae Han	Myanmar	2:00.90
56	1	9	Ali Al-Hasni	Oman	2:01.31
57	1	1	Ervin Shrestha	Nepal	2:02.83
58	1	6	Haziq Samil	Brunei	2:04.05
59	1	0	Ocean Campus	Guam	2:05.98
	1	2	Rohan Shearer	Cape Verde	Did not start

Semifinals

The semifinals took place on 28 July at 20:08. ^{[8] [12]}

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	1	4	Luke Hobson	United States	1:44.80	Q
2	1	6	Hwang Sun-woo	South Korea	1:44.84	Q
3	1	7	Kamil Sieradzki	Poland	1:45.00	Q, NR [10]
4	2	4	David Popovici	Romania	1:45.02	Q
5	1	8	Carlos D'Ambrosio	Italy	1:45.23	Q, NR [10]
6	2	3	Tatsuya Murasa	Japan	1:45.39	Q
7	1	2	James Guy	Great Britain	1:45.50	Q
8	1	5	Gabriel Jett	United States	1:45.60	Q
9	1	1	Sander Sørensen	Norway	1:45.78	NR [10]
10	1	3	Flynn Southam	Australia	1:45.80
11	2	2	Zhang Zhanshuo	China	1:45.84
12	2	5	Matt Richards	Great Britain	1:45.85
13	2	6	Lucas Henveaux	Belgium	1:46.23
14	2	1	Filippo Megli	Italy	1:46.49
15	2	7	Dimitrios Markos	Greece	1:47.01
16	2	8	Evan Bailey	Ireland	1:48.75

Final

The final took place on 29 July. ^{[8] [13]}

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	David Popovici	Romania	1:43.53
	4	Luke Hobson	United States	1:43.84
	7	Tatsuya Murasa	Japan	1:44.54	NR [11]
4	5	Hwang Sun-woo	South Korea	1:44.72
5	3	Kamil Sieradzki	Poland	1:45.22
6	2	Carlos D'Ambrosio	Italy	1:45.27
7	1	James Guy	Great Britain	1:45.28
8	8	Gabriel Jett	United States	1:45.92

Notes

1. Only including swimmers who were on the start list for this event

References

1. "World Aquatics Championships – Singapore 2025". worldaquatics-singapore2025.com. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
2. "Start list" (PDF). omegatiming.com. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
3. Folsom, Madeline (19 July 2025). "2025 World Championship Previews: Can Popovici Hold Off Hobson For the Men's 200 Free Title?". SwimSwam. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
4. "Standard Entry Times" (PDF). World Aquatics . Retrieved 6 July 2025.
5. "Competition Regulations" (PDF). World Aquatics . pp. 13–14. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
6. "Qualifying | World Aquatics Official". World Aquatics. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
7. "Records book" (PDF). omegatiming.com. 26 July 2025.
8. "Competition Schedule | World Aquatics Official". World Aquatics. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
9. "Heats results" (PDF). omegatiming.com. 28 July 2025.
10. Kaufman, Sophie (28 July 2025). "2025 Worlds, Euro Recap Day 2: Roos Vanotterdijk Wins Belgium's First Worlds Medal Since 1998". SwimSwam. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
11. Race, Retta (3 August 2025). "2025 Worlds, Day 8 Asia Recap: 12-Yr-Old Yu Zidi Wrangles Up Another Fourth-Place Finish". SwimSwam. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
12. "Semifinals results" (PDF). omegatiming.com. 28 July 2025.
13. "Final results" (PDF). omegatiming.com. 29 July 2025.