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China’s Qin Haiyang kickstarted the evening session on day two of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships with a nail-biting comeback, successfully defending his men’s 100m breaststroke title to secure his nation’s first swimming gold of the meet.
Trailing at the turn behind reigning Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi by 0.17 seconds, Qin surged down the final stretch, digging deep in the last stretch to edge out the Italian by 0.35 sec in dramatic fashion.
“This definitely helps with confidence,” Qin said after the race. “I’m competing in three events, and they’re all tough. Even if I hadn’t won gold today, I’ve done better than yesterday, and that’s enough for me. In the last 10 metres, we were all spent. Maybe that’s when my technique gave me a slight edge. Winning this gold isn’t something that comes easily for me.”
The victory (58.32sec) was especially satisfying for the 25-year-old breaststroke specialist, who had finished a disappointing seventh in the same event at the Paris Olympics.
“As far as I’m concerned, my results this year can be described more as an improvement. And that’s enough for me. There are still a few years ahead before the next Olympic Games, and I want to still be able to achieve my dreams. That dream is to achieve Olympic gold in this event.”
Qin will now set his sights on replicating his golden treble from the 2023 Fukuoka championships, where he swept the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke events.
In the women’s 100m butterfly final, world record holder Gretchen Walsh also claimed her nation’s first gold of the competition with a championship record of 54.73 sec, more than a second faster than her closest competitor, Belgian Roos Vanotterdijk (55.84).
“I feel great about it. I was not expecting that time for myself. I think I’ve had to reevaluate my expectations for myself over the course of this meet. I know it’s only been two days, but I wanted to go in and just execute the race like I knew how.”
“If that was gonna be a 55, that was gonna be 55, and I was gonna be happy with that, but the fact that it was a 54.7, second fastest time ever, very close to my personal best and the world record. I’m over the moon. I’m really happy that when it mattered, I was able to do that and just get my hands on the wall,” the American said.
Australia’s Alexandria Perkins took bronze with a 56.33-second swim while reigning Olympic champion Torri Huske was a notable omission, having reportedly been ill in the lead-up to the world championships.
Frenchman Maxime Grousset improved on his 2023 showing (bronze) as he blazed the pool in a startling 22.48 sec sprint as he recorded the fourth fastest time in the 50m butterfly, just behind Rafael Munoz (22.43) of Spain, Caeleb Dressel (22.35), and world record holder Andriy Govorov of Ukraine (22.27).
“I feel very good. And I don’t know how I swam this final… a very fast final. Noe (Ponti) swam fast too. Overall, I am proud of myself,” Grousset said. “Next for me is the 100m freestyle. One day of rest for me. After that, I hope to win another gold medal.”
But the marquee race was the closing women’s 200m individual medley final with teen starlet Summer Mcintosh racing against Gretchen’s sister and 2023 silver medallist Alex Walsh. China’s 12-year-old swimming prodigy Yu Zidi was also in the decider with the seventh fastest qualifying time of 2:10.22 in the semifinal.
But it was always going to be Mcintosh, who came into the final with a whopping 1.1-second advantage over second-quickest Alex Walsh.
The 18-year-old (2:06.69) showed maturity beyond her years with a calm and collected poolside interview after a decisive final leg of 30.16 seconds in the freestyle that pulled her away from Walsh (2:08.58).
Notching her second gold of the meet, with an aim to bag five individual titles in as many events, Mcintosh said in front of a packed-out crowd that she was “not too proud of her time” despite finishing close to two whole seconds ahead of Walsh.
“Going in tonight, my goal was to get my head on the wall first, so to get that done is good. I’m not super happy with the time, but honestly, at a world championships, my goal is just to go as fast as I can against my competitors. Still happy with the gold and hoping to keep up my streak next time,” Mcintosh said.
Despite dominating the field, she will have challengers in her rear view mirror looking to chase her down, with Yu coming in fourth in the final with a superb swim of 2:09.21. The Chinese missed out on a podium spot by 0.06 to Mary-Sophie Harvey.
Yu earned praises from her competitors for her debut swim with Alex saying, “She’s obviously phenomenally talented at such a young age, and I think it’ll be interesting to see how she takes this meet and translates it into the future swims she has, because she’s definitely got a really bright future.”
Meanwhile, Mcintosh’s gold hunt continues on Wednesday (Jul 30) with the 200m butterfly heats and semi-finals.
But recovery will be key in her quest, with the 800m freestyle heats taking place on Friday (Aug 1) and the 400m medley and final both taking place on Sunday (Aug 3).
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