The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 28 to 29 July 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore. Pieter Coetze from South Africa became the world champion, setting also an African record.

Background The 2024 Olympic medalists were Thomas Ceccon of Italy, Xu Jiayu of China, and Ryan Murphy of the United States. Ceccon and Xu are both previous world champions and were both competing in Singapore, while Murphy was not. Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov and Miron Lifintsev, both representing the Neutral Athletes B team, had the first and third fastest times of 2025, with 52.04 and 52.15, respectively. Lifintsev also won gold at the 2024 short course Worlds. Great Britain’s Oliver Morgan was ranked second in 2025 with 52.12 and had consistently improved since 2023, while Hungary’s Hubert Kós had swum 52.24 while competing across multiple events. Other contenders included Apostolos Christou of Greece, Ksawery Masiuk of Poland, Pieter Coetzee of South Africa, and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of France. Eleven men had been under 53 seconds in 2025, with six under 52.5.

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 53.94 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 55.83 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 timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionThomas Ceccon52.002024 Summer OlympicsKliment Kolesnikov   Neutral Athletes B52.042025 Russian ChampionshipsOliver Morgan52.122025 Aquatics GB ChampionshipsMiron Lifintsev   Neutral Athletes B52.152025 Russian ChampionshipsApostolos Christou52.232024 European ChampionshipsHubert Kós52.242025 Hungarian ChampionshipsXu Jiayu52.492025 Chinese ChampionshipsKsawery Masiuk52.552025 Polish ChampionshipsPieter Coetze52.582024 Summer OlympicsYohann Ndoye-Brouard52.602024 Summer Olympics

Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

Heats The heats took place on 28 July 10:23.

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 6 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 52.30 Q 2 5 4 Kliment Kolesnikov    Neutral Athletes B 52.57 Q 3 4 5 Hubert Kós 52.60 Q 4 5 5 Apostolos Christou 52.61 Q 5 4 7 Christian Bacico 52.72 Q 6 6 5 Miron Lifintsev    Neutral Athletes B 52.77 Q 7 4 3 Pieter Coetze 52.80 Q 8 5 3 Ksawery Masiuk 52.82 Q 9 4 4 Oliver Morgan 52.93 Q 10 6 2 Mewen Tomac 53.07 Q 11 4 6 Evangelos Makrygiannis 53.29 Q 12 5 7 Miroslav Knedla 53.59 Q 13 6 4 Thomas Ceccon 53.65 Q 14 6 3 Xu Jiayu 53.73 Q 15 6 7 Ulises Saravia 53.74 Q 16 5 0 Ádám Jászó 53.78 Q 17 6 1 Lee Ju-ho 53.79 18 5 2 Tommy Janton 53.87 19 4 2 Jonathon Marshall 53.91 20 4 1 Roman Mityukov 53.92 21 6 8 Riku Matsuyama 53.94 22 3 1 Finn Harland 54.17 23 4 0 Adrián Santos 54.22 24 4 8 Oleksandr Zheltyakov 54.24 24 5 1 Kai van Westering 54.24 26 6 0 John Shortt 54.26 27 5 8 Wang Shun 54.31 28 3 4 Marcus Reyes-Gentry 54.36 29 2 5 Quah Zheng Wen 54.39 30 3 3 Joshua Edwards-Smith 54.52 31 3 2 Inbar Danziger 54.59 32 5 9 Guilherme Basseto 54.68 33 6 9 Denis Popescu 54.80 34 3 5 Cole Pratt 54.81 35 3 6 Mantas Kaušpėdas 54.98 36 4 9 Robert Pedersen 55.03 37 3 7 Jack Harvey 55.40 38 3 9 Yeziel Morales 55.41 39 3 8 Luka Čarapović 55.84 40 2 4 Liam Carrington 55.87 41 2 3 Patrick Groters 55.95 42 2 6 Rémi Fabiani 56.39 43 2 8 Tonnam Kanteemool 56.53 44 5 6 Jack Aikins 56.54 45 2 9 Edhy Vargas 56.59 NR 46 2 0 Guðmundur Leo Rafnsson 56.71 47 3 0 Noe Pantskhava 56.72 48 2 2 Mohamed Ben Abbes 56.92 49 1 8 Ahmad Safie 56.94 50 2 7 Hayden Kwan 57.02 51 2 1 Nikolass Deičmans 57.18 52 1 4 Enkhtöriin Erkhes 57.25 NR 53 1 5 Alexis Kpade 57.50 NR 54 1 3 Zackary Gresham 58.25 NR 55 1 6 Samiul Rafi 58.36 NR 56 1 2 Joel Ling 57 1 7 Kokoro Frost 58 1 0 Mohammed Al-Wahaibi 59 1 1 Zakhar Pilkevich

Semifinals The semifinals took place on 28 July at 19:19.

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 5 Hubert Kós 52.21 Q, NR 2 1 4 Kliment Kolesnikov    Neutral Athletes B 52.26 Q 3 2 6 Pieter Coetze 52.29 Q, AF 4 2 1 Thomas Ceccon 52.35 Q 5 2 2 Oliver Morgan 52.41 Q 6 1 5 Apostolos Christou 52.44 Q 7 2 4 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 52.47 Q 8 1 3 Miron Lifintsev    Neutral Athletes B 52.57 Q 9 1 6 Ksawery Masiuk 52.67 10 2 3 Christian Bacico 52.72 11 1 1 Xu Jiayu 53.14 12 1 2 Mewen Tomac 53.15 12 1 7 Miroslav Knedla 53.15 NR 14 2 7 Evangelos Makrygiannis 53.36 15 1 8 Ádám Jászó 53.62 16 2 8 Ulises Saravia 54.32

Final The final took place on 29 July at 19:59.

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 3 Pieter Coetze 51.85 AF 6 Thomas Ceccon 51.90 1 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 51.92 NR 4 4 Hubert Kós 52.20 NR 5 2 Oliver Morgan 52.37 6 5 Kliment Kolesnikov    Neutral Athletes B 52.38 7 8 Miron Lifintsev    Neutral Athletes B 52.51 8 7 Apostolos Christou 52.62

Notes

References