By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
2025 World Para Swimming Championships
- September 21-27, 2025
- OCBC Aquatic Centre – Singapore
- LCM (50 Meters)
- Meet Central
- Youtube Livestream Channel
- Results
The opening day of the World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore featured 26 title races and a pair of world-record performances.
Para Athlete Classifications:
- Physical Impairment: S1-S10
- Visual Impairment: S11-S13
- Intellectual Impairment: S14
Prefixes Explanation:
- S: Freestyle, Butterfly and Backstroke
- SB: Breaststroke
- SM: IM
Day One Highlights:
The first world record of the meet came at the hands of Great Britain’s William Ellard in the men’s 200 freestyle S14. Ellard topped his own world record from Paris last summer of 1:51.30 with a final time of 1:51.08. In the same final, Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira clocked a new Americas record in 1:52.03 to finish just behind Ellard for silver.
Brazil’s Alessandra Oliveira Dos Santos dominated the field in the women’s 100 breaststroke SB4. Her final time of 1:43.21 topped Norway’s Sarah Louise Rung’s 2014 world record time of 1:43.87, and Rung’s championship record of 1:44.83. Oliveira Dos Santos finished over 9 seconds ahead of silver medalist Giulia Ghiretti of Italy (1:52.47).
Italy’s Monica Boggioni nabbed two day one wins in the women’s 50 free S5 (38.37) and 50 breast SB3 (53.95). Boggioni is the only athlete to win multiple events so far at Para Worlds.
In the men’s 400 freestyle S8, reigning Paralympic and World Champion Alberto Amodeo defended his titles, with his gold medal winning performance of 4:23.27, just ahead of Andrei Nikolaev in 4:24.06 to set a new championship record. Both performers swam under the previous championship record time set by Oliver Hynd of 4:24.32 from 2015.
Grace Nuhfer earned the United States first gold medal of the meet in the women’s 100 butterfly S13, touching in 1:03.33, nearly a full second ahead of Carlotta Gilli (1:04.26).
Jiang Yuyan, who topped the individual medal total last summer in Paris with seven Paralympic Golds, topped all competitors in the women’s 100 backstroke S6 touching in a championship record time of 1:20.13. The time overtook Shelby Newkirk’s 2023 record of 1:20.62, but was just off of her world record of 1:19.44.
South Africa’s Christian Sadie clocked a new African record in the men’s 200 IM SM7, clocking 2:34.03 to finish 2nd behind Argentina’s Inaki Basilof (2:30.65).
Mallory Weggemann asserted her dominance in the women’s 200 IM SM7 taking gold in 2:54.75, well off of her world and championship record of 2:48.43, but she finished 1.75 seconds ahead of the field. Ukraine’s Veronika Korzhova took silver in 2:56.50, marking a new European record. Weggemann and Korzhova were the lone competitors to swim under the three minute mark.
Australia’s Rowan Crothers (23.21) and Thomas Gallagher (23.46) went 1-2 in the men’s 50 free S10 final. Crothers tied the Oceanian record and was .01 seconds off of the championships record, and .05 off of the world record.
Turkey’s Defne Kurt closed out day one with a championship record in the women’s 50 free S10 final. Kurt initially broke the championship record in prelims in 27.34, and backed up that early swim with her 27.21 to take gold and reset the championship record.
Other Day One Event Winners:
- Women’s 400 Free S8: Alice Tai (GBR)
- Men’s 100 Breast SB9: Hector Denayer (FRA)
- Women’s 100 Breast SB9: Lisa Kruger (NED)
- Men’s 50 Breast SB2: Jose Arnulfo Castorena Velez (MEX)
- Women’s 50 Breast SB2: Tanja Scholz (GER)
- Men’s 50 Free S5: Jincheng Guo (CHN)
- Men’s 100 Fly S13: Egor Shichitkovski (NPA)
- Men’s 100 Back S6: Hong Yang (CHN)
- Women’s 200 Free S14: Poppy Maskill (GBR)
- Men’s 50 Free S11: David Kratochvil (CZE)
- Women’s 50 Free S11: Daria Lukianenko (NPA)
- Men’s 50 Breast SB3: Ami Omer Dadaon (ISR)
- Men’s 100 Back S12: Raman Slei (AZE)
- Women’s 100 Back S12: Maria Carolin Gomes Santiago Araujo (BRA)
- Men’s 100 Breast SB4: Dmitrii Cherniaev (NPA)
Medal Table:
| Country | Gold | Slver | Bronze | Total |
| Great Britain | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| Italy | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| China | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Brazil | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| United States | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Australia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Czech Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| France | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Argentina | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Azerbijan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Germany | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Israel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mexico | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Turkey | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ukraine | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Spain | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Bosnia Heregovina | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Colombia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Croatia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Japan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| South Africa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Canada | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Finland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Greece | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Ellard Lowers WR, Oliveira Dos Santos Tops Breaststroke Mark- Para Worlds Day 1 Recap
