The men's 50 metre backstroke event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 2 to 3 August 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.
Background Russian Kliment Kolesnikov, representing the Neutral Athletes B team, entered as the favourite with the world record of 23.55 seconds and the fastest qualifying time of 23.90. His compatriot Pavel Samusenko had the second fastest qualifying time of 24.01. Other contenders included Ksawery Masiuk of Poland, who earned bronze at the 2024 World Championships and held a 24.44 national record, and Pieter Coetze of South Africa, ranked 10th globally. European challengers included Hubert Kós of Hungary, Thomas Ceccon of Italy, and Apostolos Christou of Greece. The United States fielded Shaine Casas and Quintin McCarty, and Isaac Cooper of Australia and Xu Jiayu of China were also in contention for medals.
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. For this event, the "A" standard qualification time was 25.11 seconds. 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 25.99 seconds. 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. +Top 10 fastest qualification timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionKliment Kolesnikov Neutral Athletes B23.902025 Russian ChampionshipsPavel Samusenko Neutral Athletes B24.012025 Russian ChampionshipsShaine Casas24.23Westmont stop of the 2025 TYR Pro Swim SeriesQuintin McCarty24.342025 United States ChampionshipsXu Jiayu24.382025 Chinese ChampionshipsApostolos Christou24.392024 European ChampionshipsMiron Lifintsev Neutral Athletes B24.402025 Russian ChampionshipsMichele Lamberti24.402024 Sette ColliOliver Morgan24.432025 British ChampionshipsKsawery Masiuk24.462025 Polish Championships
Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
The following new records were set during this competition. Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 3 August Final Kliment Kolesnikov Neutral Athletes B 23.68 CR
Heats The heats took place on 2 August at 10:31.
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 7 4 Kliment Kolesnikov Neutral Athletes B 24.08 Q 2 5 3 Pieter Coetze 24.36 Q 3 5 7 Miroslav Knedla 24.52 Q, NR 4 7 3 Oliver Morgan 24.56 Q 5 5 6 Hubert Kós 24.62 Q, =NR 6 5 5 Apostolos Christou 24.65 Q 7 6 4 Pavel Samusenko Neutral Athletes B 24.66 Q 8 6 2 Ulises Saravia 24.72 Q 9 5 0 Ádám Jászó 24.73 Q 10 7 5 Quintin McCarty 24.76 Q 10 7 7 Adrián Santos 24.76 Q 10 7 8 Finn Harland 24.76 Q 13 5 1 Vincent Passek 24.79 Q 14 7 2 Isaac Cooper 24.80 Q 15 6 3 Ksawery Masiuk 24.89 Q 15 7 1 Christian Bacico 24.89 Q 17 7 0 Ralf Tribuntsov 24.90 18 5 2 Mantas Kaušpėdas 24.95 19 3 8 Shane Ryan 24.96 20 5 4 Shaine Casas 24.97 20 6 6 Guilherme Basseto 24.97 22 4 3 Marcus Reyes-Gentry 24.98 NR 23 6 1 Iván Martínez 25.03 24 4 5 Wang Gukailai 25.04 24 6 7 Evangelos Makrygiannis 25.04 26 6 5 Xu Jiayu 25.08 27 5 8 Kai van Westering 25.09 27 6 0 Andrew Jeffcoat 25.09 29 7 9 Riku Matsuyama 25.11 30 4 8 Blake Tierney 25.20 31 4 6 Robert Pedersen 25.22 32 3 5 Nikola Aćin 25.24 NR 33 4 2 Jakub Krischke 25.34 33 4 4 Tomer Shuster 25.34 33 5 9 Denis Popescu 25.34 36 6 9 Masaki Yura 25.35 37 3 6 Quah Zheng Wen 25.38 37 6 8 Jonathon Marshall 25.38 39 3 7 Lamar Taylor 25.45 40 4 7 Jack Harvey 25.55 41 4 1 Oleksandr Zheltyakov 25.64 42 4 0 Bernhard Reitshammer 25.70 43 2 4 Markus Lie 25.76 43 3 9 Enkhtöriin Erkhes 25.76 NR 45 3 3 Noe Pantskhava 25.82 46 4 9 Nikola Miljenić 25.91 47 3 1 Remi Fabiani 26.02 48 2 5 Gleb Kovalenya 26.05 49 3 0 Patrick Groters 26.06 50 2 3 Tonnam Kanteemool 26.10 51 2 6 Charles Hockin 26.11 51 3 2 I Gede Siman Sudartawa 26.11 53 1 3 Ahmad Safie 26.20 54 2 2 Filippos Iakovidis 26.79 55 2 7 Samiul Islam Rafi 27.21 56 2 8 Luka Smit 29.98 57 2 1 Zakhar Pilkevich 31.52 58 2 0 Claudio Yelegou 32.42 59 2 9 Jose Tati 34.68 60 1 5 Beula Sanga 36.11 1 4 Foday Mansaray 3 4 Roman Mityukov 7 6 Thomas Ceccon
Semifinals The semifinals took place on 2 August at 20:07.
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 2 4 Kliment Kolesnikov Neutral Athletes B 24.16 Q 2 2 6 Pavel Samusenko Neutral Athletes B 24.31 Q 3 1 4 Pieter Coetze 24.32 Q, AF 4 2 8 Ksawery Masiuk 24.41 Q, NR 5 1 3 Apostolos Christou 24.50 Q 5 2 3 Hubert Kós 24.50 Q, NR 7 1 2 Quintin McCarty 24.52 Q 8 1 1 Isaac Cooper 24.53 Q 9 2 5 Miroslav Knedla 24.61 10 1 5 Oliver Morgan 24.64 11 1 6 Ulises Saravia 24.68 12 2 2 Ádám Jászó 24.74 13 2 7 Adrián Santos 24.80 14 2 1 Vincent Passek 24.82 15 1 8 Christian Bacico 24.90 16 1 7 Finn Harland 25.02
Final The final took place on 3 August at 19:02.
Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Kliment Kolesnikov Neutral Athletes B 23.68 CR 3 Pieter Coetze 24.17 AF 5 Pavel Samusenko Neutral Athletes B 24.17 4 6 Ksawery Masiuk 24.51 5 1 Quintin McCarty 24.58 6 2 Apostolos Christou 24.59 7 8 Isaac Cooper 24.61 8 7 Hubert Kós 24.62
References