The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 31 July to 1 August 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.
Background The event will feature one of the closest fields of the meet, with 15 swimmers seeded under 2:10. China’s Qin Haiyang, the world record holder and 2023 world champion with 2:05.48, is expected to seek redemption after missing the 2024 Olympic final, having already clocked 2:07.44 in 2025. His teammate Dong Zhihao, the 2024 world champion, may also challenge for a medal. Japan’s Ippei Watanabe and Yamato Fukasawa are both entering near 2:07 form, though Watanabe has a history of slower championship swims. Rising Japanese talent Shin Ohashi will not compete despite recently setting a 2:06.91 World Junior Record. Key absences include France’s Léon Marchand, Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook, and American Matt Fallon, opening medal opportunities for contenders such as the Netherlands’ Caspar Corbeau and Russia's Kirill Prigoda, who is competing as part of the Neutral Athletes B team.
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 2:10.32. 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 2:14.88. 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 timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionLéon Marchand2:05.852024 Summer OlympicsMatt Fallon2:06.542024 United States Olympic TrialsZac Stubblety-Cook2:06.792024 Summer OlympicsIppei Watanabe2:06.942024 Japanese Olympic TrialsYu Hanaguruma2:07.062024 Japanese Olympic TrialsYamato Fukasawa2:07.472025 Japanese ChampionshipsQin Haiyang2:07.572025 Chinese ChampionshipsCaspar Corbeau2:07.902024 Summer OlympicsA J Pouch2:08.002024 United States Olympic TrialsJoshua Yong2:08.082024 Australian Olympic Trials
Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
Heats The heats took place on 31 July 2025 at 11:12.
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 3 3 Aleksandr Zhigalov Neutral Athletes B 2:08.32 Q 2 5 4 Ippei Watanabe 2:08.41 Q 3 4 5 AJ Pouch 2:08.62 Q 4 3 4 Qin Haiyang 2:09.96 Q 5 5 1 Carles Coll 2:10.30 Q 6 5 5 Caspar Corbeau 2:10.31 Q 7 3 5 Kirill Prigoda Neutral Athletes B 2:10.46 Q 8 5 7 Gregory Butler 2:10.60 Q 9 4 4 Yamato Fukasawa 2:10.83 Q 10 3 7 Jan Kałusowski 2:10.88 Q 11 4 0 Oliver Dawson 2:11.07 Q 11 5 8 Maksym Ovchinnikov 2:11.07 Q 13 5 6 Christian Mantegazza 2:11.10 Q 14 5 2 Cho Sung-jae 2:11.13 Q 15 5 3 Dong Zhihao 2:11.15 Q 16 3 6 Erik Persson 2:11.34 Q 17 4 1 Aleksas Savickas 2:11.37 18 5 0 Filip Mujan 2:11.53 19 4 7 Denis Petrashov 2:11.68 20 3 1 Eoin Corby 2:11.84 21 3 2 Luka Mladenovic 2:12.03 22 4 6 Lyubomir Epitropov 2:12.28 23 3 0 Savvas Thomoglou 2:12.47 24 3 8 Miguel de Lara 2:14.41 25 4 8 Adam Mak 2:14.59 26 2 4 Mariano Lazzerini 2:14.61 27 3 9 Phạm Thanh Bảo 2:15.73 28 5 9 Wang Hsing-hao 2:15.87 29 2 2 Amro Al-Wir 2:16.09 30 2 5 Chan Chun Ho 2:16.17 31 4 9 Daniils Bobrovs 2:16.22 32 2 6 Constantin Malachi 2:17.69 33 2 7 Jacob Story 2:17.91 NR 34 2 0 Richard Nagy 2:20.64 35 2 1 Saud Ghali 2:24.00 36 2 8 Jonathan Raharvel 2:25.59 37 1 4 Lin Myat Thu 2:31.63 38 1 5 Pedro Pinotes 2:32.22 1 3 Mohammed Al-Otaibi 2 3 Jaouad Syoud 4 2 Nicolò Martinenghi 4 3 Josh Matheny
Semifinals The semifinals took place on 31 July at 20:12.
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 1 4 Ippei Watanabe 2:08.01 Q 2 2 5 AJ Pouch 2:08.34 Q 3 1 3 Caspar Corbeau 2:08.44 Q 4 2 2 Yamato Fukasawa 2:08.45 Q 5 2 3 Carles Coll 2:08.49 Q, NR 6 2 4 Aleksandr Zhigalov Neutral Athletes B 2:08.55 Q 7 2 6 Kirill Prigoda Neutral Athletes B 2:08.91 Q 8 1 5 Qin Haiyang 2:09.32 Q 9 1 6 Gregory Butler 2:09.60 10 1 1 Cho Sung-jae 2:10.23 11 2 7 Oliver Dawson 2:10.32 12 2 1 Christian Mantegazza 2:10.58 13 1 8 Erik Persson 2:10.85 14 1 7 Maksym Ovchinnikov 2:10.95 15 2 8 Dong Zhihao 2:11.77 16 1 2 Jan Kałusowski 2:11.84
Final The final took place on 1 August at 19.45.
Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 8 Qin Haiyang 2:07.41 4 Ippei Watanabe 2:07.70 3 Caspar Corbeau 2:07.73 4 1 Kirill Prigoda Neutral Athletes B 2:07.99 5 5 AJ Pouch 2:09.13 6 6 Yamato Fukasawa 2:09.21 7 2 Carles Coll 2:09.44 — 7 Aleksandr Zhigalov Neutral Athletes B Disqualified
References