Jiang Yuyan (Photo World Para Swimming)
Last week, China’s Jiang Yuyan was unsure whether she would be fit enough to compete at the Toyota World Para Swimming Championships Singapore 2025.
The Para swimming superstar made it two world titles in two days as she won the women’s 100m freestyle S6 final, promising that her career peak lies beyond her Paris 2024 medal haul.
On the second day of action at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, the 20-year-old beat runner-up Anna Hontar from Ukraine by 4.28 seconds in a new world record time of 1:09.58.
Jiang, known as the Flying Fish, was only 14 when she claimed gold in the event at her breakthrough World Championships in London in 2019. Since then, she has gone from strength to strength, picking up seven gold medals at last year’s Paralympic Games.
“After Paris, some people may think that I’ve reached my peak. But I aim to create even higher peaks,” Jiang said.
This year’s Laureus Award winner has, however, been recovering from a shoulder injury and only knew one week ago that she was going to compete. In Singapore, she has shown no sign of it.
With her trademark strength, a single-arm, hip-driven freestyle, Monday’s final became a race against the clock for the world record holder, who knocked a 10th of a second off her own mark from last year’s Paralympic Games.
“The charm of competitive sports lies in its unpredictability,” Jiang said.
“There may be some differences between the races I’m here to compete but, I hope to compete for gold in all my individual events.”
Switzerland’s Nora Meister claimed bronze to make it the same trio on the podium as when Jiang won Sunday’s women’s 100m backstroke S6 final.
Germany’s Josia Tim Alexander Topf produced an emotional victory in the men’s 150m individual medley SM3, his mother screaming with joy in front of a TV next to the pool.
The 22-year-old Paralympic champion followed up his Paris 2024 triumph with a world title, finishing in 2:55.06 to beat runner-up Ahmed Kelly from Australia by just over nine seconds. Italy’s Gabriele Lorenzo clinched bronze.
Topf had started the race strongly, with a significant lead after the backstroke 50m, but was chased down by the field in the breaststroke. Coming into the last 50m stretch of freestyle, he was neck and neck with Kelly but managed to push away from the Australian with an impressive freestyle leg.
It was the first World Championships gold medal for Topf, who had finished in second place at the 2022 edition of the competition, in Funchal, Portugal, missing the 2023 Worlds in Manchester, Great Britain, due to a stomach virus. Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos Araujo from Brazil finished in fifth place, breaking his own SM2 world record.
Debutant Defne Kurt from Turkiye added another gold medal to her maiden World Championships campaign as she won the women’s 200m individual medley SM10 final by a narrow margin.
Sunday’s 50m Freestyle S10 winner finished 0.22 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Faye Rogers to clinch her second world title in two days. Lisa Kruger from the Netherlands won the bronze medal, 3.77 seconds behind the winner.
She is not the only swimmer with a perfect record in Singapore so far. Germany’s Tanja Scholz, who won the women’s 150m individual medley SM3 final, Great Britain’s Alice Tai, who finished first in the women’s 100m backstroke S8, and Poppy Maskill, who won the women’s 100m backstroke S14 final with a championship record, as well as David Kratochvil from Czechia, who claimed the men’s 100m butterfly S11 gold medal and Ami Omer Dadaon from Israel, who triumphed in the men’s 100m freestyle S4, also made it two world titles in two days.
Germany’s Taliso Engel set a new world record as he won the men’s 100m breaststroke SB13 final, cutting 0.15 seconds off his own mark from Paris 2024.
Benjamin Hance from Australia could win the men’s 100m backstroke S14 gold medal with plenty of confidence in the final, having set a new world record in the heats.
Swimmers from Canada, Italy, United States and Spain also won gold medals in Singapore on Monday, as the second day of competition concluded with Ukraine’s victory in the mixed 4×50 freestyle relay 20pts final, where Brazil claimed silver and United States bronze.
Italy lead the overall standings with 15 medals, including six first places. China are in second place, also with six gold medals, followed by Great Britain, on five.
RESULTS
Men’s 100m Freestyle S4 Final
Gold: Ami Omer Dadaon (Israel)
Silver: Federico Cristiani (Italy)
Bronze: Angel de Jesus Camacho Ramirez (Mexico)
Women’s 100m Freestyle S4 Final
Gold: Katie Kubiak (United States)
Silver: Mira Larionova (NPA)
Bronze: Lidia Vieira da Cruz (Brazil)
Men’s 50m Backstroke S5 Final
Gold: Yuan Weiyi (China)
Silver: Guo Jincheng (China)
Bronze: Samuel da Silva de Oliveira (Brazil)
Women’s 50m Backstroke S5 Final
Gold: He Shenggao (China)
Silver: Sevilay Ozturk (Turkiye)
Bronze: Sumeyye Boyaci (Turkiye)
Men’s 150m Individual Medley SM3 Final
Gold: Josia Tim Alexander Topf (Germany)
Silver: Ahmed Kelly (Australia)
Bronze: Gabriele Lorenzo (Italy)
Women’s 150m Individual Medley SM3 Final
Gold: Tanja Scholz (Germany)
Silver: Leanne Smith (United States)
Bronze: Ellie Challis (Great Britain)
Men’s 400m Freestyle S7 Final
Gold: Federico Bicelli (Italy)
Silver: Inaki Basiloff (Argentina)
Bronze: Aleksei Ganiuk (NPA)
Women’s 400m Freestyle S7 Final
Gold: Morgan Stickney (United States)
Silver: Chloe Osborn (Australia)
Bronze: Ahalya Lettenberger (United States)
Men’s 100m Freestyle S6 Final
Gold: Antonio Fantin (Italy)
Silver: Nelson Crispin Corzo (Colombia)
Bronze: Vladyslav Koshman (Ukraine)
Women’s 100m Freestyle S6 Final
Gold: Jiang Yuyan (China)
Silver: Anna Hontar (Ukraine)
Bronze: Nora Meister (Switzerland)
Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM10 Final
Gold: Stefano Raimondi (Italy)
Silver: Koehn Boyd (United States)
Bronze: Ihor Nimchenko (Ukraine)
Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM10 Final
Gold: Defne Kurt (Turkiye)
Silver: Faye Rogers (Great Britain)
Bronze: Lisa Kruger (Netherlands)
Men’s 100m Backstroke S8 Final
Gold: Inigo Sanz Llopis (Spain)
Silver: Eduard Horodianyn (Ukraine)
Bronze: Turgut Aslan Yaraman (Turkiye)
Women’s 100m Backstroke S8 Final
Gold: Alice Tai (Great Britain)
Silver: Viktoriia Ishchiulova (NPA)
Bronze: Mira Jeanne Maack (Germany)
Men’s 100m Butterfly S11 Final
Gold: David Kratochvil (Czechia)
Silver: Thomaz Rocha Matera (Brazil)
Bronze: Kimura Keiichi (Japan)
Men’s 100m Butterfly S12 Final
Gold: Kylian Portal (France)
Silver: Dzmitry Salei (NPA)
Bronze: Raman Salei (Azerbaijan)
Women’s 100m Butterfly S12 Final
Gold: Maria Delgado Nadal (Spain)
Silver: Lucilene da Silva Sousa (Brazil)
Bronze: Alessia Berra (Italy)
Men’s 100m Backstroke S14 Final
Gold: Benjamin Hance (Australia)
Silver: Gabriel Bandeira (Brazil)
Bronze: William Ellard (Great Britain)
Women’s 100m Backstroke S14 Final
Gold: Poppy Maskill (Great Britain)
Silver: Bethany Firth (Great Britain)
Bronze: Georgia Sheffield (Great Britain)
Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB13 Final
Gold: Taliso Engel (Germany)
Silver: Thomas van Wanrooij (Netherlands)
Bronze: Stepan Lisitskii (NPA)
Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB13 Final
Gold: Olivia Chambers (United States)
Silver: Roisin Ni Riain (Ireland)
Bronze: Anastasiya Zudzilava (NPA)
Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM9 Final
Gold: Timothy Hodge (Australia)
Silver: Hector Denayer (France)
Bronze: Ugo Didier (France)
Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM9 Final
Gold: Mary Jibb (Canada)
Silver: Anastasiya Dmytriv Dmytriv (Spain)
Bronze: Zsofia Konkoly (Hungary)
Mixed 4x50m Freestyle Relay 20pts Final
Gold: Ukraine (Anna Hontar, Oleksandr Komarov, Artem Oliinyk, Hanna Polishchuk)
Silver: Brazil (Lidia Vieira da Cruz, Tiago de Oliveira Ferreira, Mayara do Amaral Petzold, Samuel da Silva de Oliveira)
Bronze: United States (Adin Williams, Katie Kubiak, Zach Shattuck, Leanne Smith)
