The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 27 to 28 July 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.

Background The event brought together a closely matched field following the slower-than-expected final at the Paris 2024 Olympics. China’s Qin Haiyang, the 2023 World Champion and the only swimmer of 2025 under 58.7 seconds (58.61), was the favourite after a disappointing Olympic performance considered unrepresentative of his usual form. Italy’s Olympic champion Nicolò Martinenghi, despite declining times, was expected to remain a medal contender, while fellow Italian Ludovico Viberti had recorded 59.04 in 2025. Germany’s Lucas Matzerath and Melvin Imoudu, fourth and fifth in Paris, were speculated to possibly deliver the country’s strongest 100 m breaststroke showing since 1978. Young competitors included American Campbell McKean (58.96) and China’s Dong Zhihao (59.06).

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 59.75 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 1:01.84 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 timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionAdam Peaty57.942024 British ChampionshipsQin Haiyang58.242024 Chinese ChampionshipsEvgenii Somov58.722024 Atlanta ClassicSun Jiajun58.732024 Chinese ChampionshipsSam Williamson58.802024 Australian Olympic TrialsMelvin Imoudu58.842024 European ChampionshipsNicolò Martinenghi58.902024 Sette ColliCampbell McKean58.962025 United States ChampionshipsArno Kamminga58.962024 AP Race LondonLudovico Viberti59.042025 Italian Championships

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

Heats The heats took place on 27 July at 12:06. Russia's Kirill Prigoda, representing the Neutral Athletes B team in this competition, swam 58.53 to break his country's national record.

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 2 Kirill Prigoda    Neutral Athletes B 58.53 Q, NR 2 6 3 Lucas Matzerath 58.75 Q 3 6 4 Nicolò Martinenghi 58.84 Q 4 6 5 Caspar Corbeau 59.03 Q 5 8 4 Qin Haiyang 59.13 Q 6 7 3 Josh Matheny 59.40 Q 7 8 3 Dong Zhihao 59.46 Q 8 8 6 Denis Petrashov 59.53 Q 9 7 5 Ludovico Viberti 59.56 Q 10 7 4 Melvin Imoudu 59.58 Q 11 6 6 Ilya Shymanovich    Neutral Athletes A 59.59 Q 12 7 2 Taku Taniguchi 59.75 Q 13 7 1 Gregory Butler 59.87 Q 14 8 7 Danil Semianinov    Neutral Athletes B 59.92 Q 15 8 5 Campbell McKean 59.98 Q 15 8 2 Andrius Šidlauskas 59.98 Q 17 8 1 Choi Dong-yeol 59.99 18 7 6 Yamato Fukasawa 19 6 1 Dawid Wiekiera 20 8 8 Nash Wilkes 21 8 0 Eoin Corby 21 8 9 Ronan Wantenaar 23 6 7 Aleksas Savickas 24 5 4 Volodymyr Lisovets 25 5 6 Chris Smith 26 7 8 Nil Cadevall 26 6 8 Lyubomir Epitropov 28 6 9 Miguel de Lara 29 7 9 Finlay Knox 30 7 7 Bernhard Reitshammer 31 4 5 Nusrat Allahverdi 32 5 0 Savvas Thomoglou 33 5 3 Adam Mak 34 4 3 Jørgen Scheie Bråthen 35 5 8 Filip Mujan 36 5 2 Jonas Gaur 37 5 1 Einar Margeir Ágústsson 38 4 6 Jhang Wei-tang 39 5 7 Mariano Lazzerini 40 4 1 Likhith Selvaraj Prema 41 5 5 Chan Chun Ho 42 7 0 Gur Itzhaki 43 4 4 Daniel Kertes 44 5 9 Joao Carneiro 45 6 0 Arsen Kozhakhmetov 46 3 3 Chao Man Hou 47 3 2 Jacob Story NR 48 3 5 Amro Al-Wir 49 4 9 Kito Campbell 50 4 2 Daniils Bobrovs 51 4 8 Adrian Robinson 52 1 7 Josué Domínguez 53 1 6 Samy Boutouil 54 4 7 Denis Svet 55 3 4 Panayiotis Panaretos 56 2 4 Haniel Kudwoli NR 57 2 9 Mohammed Al-Otaibi 58 2 5 Zach Moyo NR 59 3 7 Abobakr Abass 60 1 4 Mohammed Al-Khalidi 61 3 9 Jayden Loran 62 2 3 Samuel Yalimaiwai 63 2 6 Saud Ghali 64 3 1 Luis Weekes 65 1 5 Cory Werrett 66 3 8 Mark Thompson 67 1 3 Khaled Al-Otaibi 68 1 2 Kouki Watanabe 69 2 7 Anas Ganedi NR 70 2 1 Fahim Anwari 71 2 2 Chadd Ning 72 2 8 Mustafa Hashim 2 0 Alfousseine Fofana 4 0 Andrew Goh 3 0 Ashot Chakhoyan 3 6 Esteban Nuñez

Semifinals The semifinals took place on 27 July at 19:49.

Italy's Nicolò Martinenghi was initially disqualified after finishing second in the second semifinal due a performing a dolphin kick into the wall. This is later overruled with Martinenghi and the ninth fastest semifinalist Neutral Athlete B Danil Semianinov both advancing to the final. Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 3 Qin Haiyang 58.24 Q 2 2 5 Nicolò Martinenghi 58.62 Q 3 2 2 Ludovico Viberti 58.89 Q 4 1 4 Lucas Matzerath 58.93 Q 5 1 3 Josh Matheny 59.15 Q 6 1 5 Caspar Corbeau 59.17 Q 7 1 6 Denis Petrashov 59.20 Q, NR 8 2 4 Kirill Prigoda    Neutral Athletes B 59.36 Q 9 1 1 Danil Semianinov    Neutral Athletes B 59.39 Q 10 1 2 Melvin Imoudu 59.43 10 2 6 Dong Zhihao 59.43 12 2 7 Ilya Shymanovich    Neutral Athletes A 59.44 13 2 1 Gregory Butler 59.53 14 1 7 Taku Taniguchi 59.59 15 1 8 Campbell McKean 59.74 16 2 8 Andrius Šidlauskas

Final The final took place on 28 July at 19:02.

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Qin Haiyang 58.23 5 Nicolò Martinenghi 58.58 1 Denis Petrashov 58.88 NR 4 7 Caspar Corbeau 59.06 5 3 Ludovico Viberti 59.08 6 6 Lucas Matzerath 59.14 7 2 Josh Matheny 59.26 8 0 Danil Semianinov    Neutral Athletes B 59.55 8 Kirill Prigoda    Neutral Athletes B

Notes

References