World Records tumbled and rising stars introduced themselves to the world stage as the World Para Swimming Championships kicked off in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first of seven action-packed days at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, Czechia\u2019s teenage prodigy David Kratochvil secured a memorable gold medal performance, winning the men\u2019s freestyle 50m S11 gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 17-year-old, who set a Championship Record in the heats, produced a powerful mid-race surge to claim his first 50m-world title in 25.52, 0.36 of a second before runner-up Mahamadou Dambelleh Jarra from Spain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dThis race was difficult because I swam fast in the morning,\u201d Kratochvil said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI wanted to swim the same way in the final. I did, and I\u2019m really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Czech rising star had been eighth in the event at the last World Championships, in Manchester, Great Britain, two years ago, and fifth at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games last year, before taking the last steps onto the podium \u2013 and to the very top of it \u2013 on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind him were names such as five-time Paralympic champion Rogier Dorsman of the Netherlands, and Japan\u2019s Kimura Keiichi, who has 14 Games medals including three of gold. Brazil\u2019s Thomaz Rocha Matera took bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. The 50m is the strongest race in our class and I\u2019d rather swim the 400m freestyle,\u201d said Kratochvil, who is the Paralympic and world champion in the 400m freestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dBut I\u2019m so happy that I\u2019ve won here because I was fifth in the Paralympic Games and it\u2019s amazing that I now have got first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finishing 0.36 of a second behind the winner, runner-up Dambelleh Jarra claimed his first World Championships medal in his second edition of the competition, completing another impressive journey to the podium. In Manchester two years ago, he finished in 13th place, missing out on the final, and did not compete at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The women\u2019s 400m freestyle S8 final turned into a narrow battle between Great Britain teammates Alice Tai, 26, and Brock Whiston, 28. Whiston took an early lead and held it for 300m, with Tai chasing after her. The duo came up side by side for the last quarter of the race and with 50m left to swim, Tai was one tenth of a second ahead of her teammate. She took the victory by 0.21 second, as Spain\u2019s Nahia Zudaire Borrezo, more than three seconds behind the British duo, won bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was such a great race between me and Brock. I\u2019m really happy to be on the podium with my teammate,\u201d Tai said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the tough competition, Paralympic champion Jessica Long of the United States had to settle for a sixth place, finishing 13.60 seconds after the winner. Whiston had not taken the podium for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was hoping to be among the top five, as I knew it would be a difficult race,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dBut it was very special to be there with Alice and also with Nahia [Zudaire Borrezo] who was super emotional. This shows what sport is about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the absence of retired Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympic champion Chantalle Zijderveld, her Netherlands teammate Lisa Kruger was the woman to beat in the women\u2019s 100m breaststroke SB9 final, and Kruger made no mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rio 2016 gold medallist took an early lead and kept expanding the gap back to her competitors, claiming the gold medal in 1:15.71 \u2013 3.85 seconds faster than silver medallist Gabriella Smith of New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dThis year has been an emotional rollercoaster,\u201d Kruger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI’ve started to study medicine and it’s sometimes been difficult to combine studies and training. And on top of that my father passed away at the beginning of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI remember when I got the qualification time to come to the world championships, I was over the moon, I was crying. And now I’m here, I’ve just won the world title.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was interviewed by none other than world record-holder Zijderveld, who now works as a press attach\u00e9 for Team Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI’m really happy to have Chantalle here\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI remembered we had to record a video once with me asking her a question and I was asking her ‘how does it feel to beat me, again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Zijderveld is getting used to being the one holding the microphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt feels very weird to be here because I\u2019m in the World Championships but I\u2019m not an athlete anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dI feel comfortable saying that I\u2019m not racing anymore. I\u2019m happy to be here, I\u2019m officially doing the media for the Dutch swimmers and I\u2019m happy to help the team any way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A veteran still in the game, Germany\u2019s Tanja Scholz, 41, was unbeatable in the women\u2019s 50m breaststroke SB2 final where she set her second world record of the day. Finishing a race against the clock in 1:00.95, she beat her record time from the heats by 1.32 second. Defending champion, Ellie Challis from Great Britain, had to settle for a silver, 9.44 seconds behind as teenager Diana Koltsova, 17, took bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazilian 17-year-old Alessandra Oliveira dos Santos broke an 11-year-old world record as she won gold in the women\u2019s 100m breaststroke SB4. Finishing in 1:43.21, more than nine seconds ahead of Italy\u2019s defending world and Paralympic champion Giulia Ghiretti, the Brazilian smashed the milestone time set by Norway\u2019s Sarah Louise Rung on 17 July 2014, when Oliveira dos Santos had just turned six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another dominant performance, Great Britain\u2019s William Ellard led the men\u2019s 200m Freestyle S14 final from start to finish to claim the gold medal with a new world record. Clocking in at 1:51.08, Ellard beat his own record from last year\u2019s Paralympic Games by 0.22 of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkiye\u2019s Defne Kurt, 24, is making her international debut this year and continued to break new ground in Singapore, where she won the women\u2019s 50m freestyle S10 gold medal with a new championships record of 27.21, beating runner-up Alessia Scortechini from Italy by seven tenths of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy won three gold medals on Sunday, Monica Boggioni starting her Singapore 2025 campaign with triumphs in the women\u2019s 50m freestyle S5 and 50m breaststroke SB3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swimmers from Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, China, France, Israel, Mexico and the United States, as well as Neutral Para Athletes (NPA), also made it onto the top of the podium on day one of competition in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE MEDALISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s 400m Freestyle S8 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 400m Freestyle S8 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 100m Breaststroke SB9 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 100m Breaststroke SB9 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 50m Breaststroke SB2 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 50m Breaststroke SB2 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 50m Freestyle S5 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 50m Freestyle S5 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 100m Butterfly S13 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 100m Butterfly S13 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 100m Backstroke S6 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 100m Backstroke S6 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 200m Freestyle S14 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 200m Freestyle S14 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 200m Individual Medley SM7 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 200m Individual Medley SM7 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 50m Freestyle S11 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 50m Freestyle S11 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 50m Breaststroke SB3 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 50m Breaststroke SB3 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 100m Backstroke S12 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 100m Backstroke S12 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 100m Breaststroke SB4 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 100m Breaststroke SB4 Final<\/strong> Men\u2019s 50m Freestyle S10 Final<\/strong> Women\u2019s 50m Freestyle S10 Final<\/strong> World Records tumbled and rising stars introduced themselves to the world stage as the World Para Swimming Championships<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,7],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-newsbeat","tag-swimming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed.jpg",1066,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed.jpg",1066,600,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed.jpg",1066,600,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a> Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lisa-Kruger_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3537,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Gold: Alberto Amodeo (Italy)
Silver: Andrei Nikolaev (NPA)
Bronze: Callum Simpson (AUS)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Alice Tai (Great Britain)
Silver: Brock Whiston (Great Britain)
Bronze: Nahia Zudaire Borrezo (Spain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Hector Denayer (France)
Silver: Artem Isaev (NPA)
Bronze: Stefano Raimondi (Italy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Lisa Kruger (Netherlands)
Silver: Gabriella Smith (New Zealand)
Bronze: Elizaveta Sidorenko (NPA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Jose Arnulfo Cystorna Velez (Mexico)
Silver: Ismail Barlov (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Bronze: Igor Bobyrev (NPA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Tanja Scholz (Germany)
Silver: Ellie Challis (Great Britain)
Bronze: Diana Koltsova (NPA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Guo Jincheng (China)
Silver: Artem Oliinyk (Ukraine)
Bronze: Samuel da Silva de Oliveira (Brazil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Monica Boggioni (Italy)
Silver: Agata Koupilova (Czechia)
Bronze: Natalie Ornkvist (Finland)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Egor Shchitkovskii (NPA)
Silver: Oleksii Virchenko (Ukraine)
Bronze: Alex Portal (France)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Grace Nuhfer (United States)
Silver: Carlotta Gilli (Italy)
Bronze: Roisin Ni Riain (Ireland)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Yang Hong (China)
Silver: Dino Sinovcic (Croatia)
Bronze: Antonio Fantin (Italy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Jiang Yuyan (China)
Silver: Nora Meister (Switzerland)
Bronze: Anna Hontar (Ukraine)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: William Ellard (Great Britain)
Silver: Gabriel Bandeira (Brazil)
Bronze: Nicholas Bennett (Canada)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Poppy Maskill (Great Britain)
Silver: Valeriia Shabalina (NPA)
Bronze: Louise Fiddes (Great Britain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Inaki Basiloff (Argentina)
Silver: Christian Sadie (South Africa)
Bronze: Aleksei Ganiuk (NPA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Mallory Weggemann (United States)
Silver: Veronika Korzhova (Ukraine)
Bronze: Iona Winnifrith (Great Britain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: David Kratochvil (Czechia)
Silver: Mahamadou Dambelleh Jarra (Spain)
Bronze: Thomaz Rocha Matera (Brazil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Daria Lukianenko (NPA)
Silver: Karolina Pelendritou (Cyprus)
Bronze: Liesette Bruinsma (Netherlands)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Ami Omer Dadaon (Israel)
Silver: Suzuki Takayuki (Japan)
Bronze: Efrem Morelli (Italy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Monica Boggioni (Italy)
Silver: Mira Larionova (NPA)
Bronze: Patricia Pereira dos Santos (Brazil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Raman Salei (Azerbaijan)
Silver: Maksim Vashkevich (NPA)
Bronze: Evan Wilkerson (United States)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago (Brazil)
Silver: Ela Letton-Jones (Great Britain)
Bronze: Astrid Carroll (Great Britain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Dmitrii Cherniaev (NPA)
Silver: Moises Fuentes Garcia (Colombia)
Bronze: Antonios Tsapatakis (Greece)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Alessandra Oliveira dos Santos (Brazil)
Silver: Giulia Ghiretti (Italy)
Bronze: Berta Garcia Grau (Spain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Rowan Crothers (Australia)
Silver: Thomas Gallagher (Australia)
Bronze: Ihor Nimchenko (Ukraine)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold: Defne Kurt (Turkiye)
Silver: Alessia Scortechini (Italy)
Bronze: Arianna Hunsicker (Canada)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"