The men's 200 metre backstroke 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 Olympic champion and 2023 world champion Hubert Kós of Hungary entered as the second seed with the 1:54.26 he swam to win at the 2024 Olympics, which was one-hundredth slower than American Jack Aikins’ 1:54.25 from 2025 US Nationals. Also among the leading contenders were Keaton Jones of the United States, Apostolos Siskos of Greece, and Olympic bronze medalist Roman Mityukov of Switzerland, all of whom had swum under 1:55.00. Also in contention were Pieter Coetze of South Africa, Lukas Märtens of Germany, Thomas Ceccon of Italy, Oleksandr Zheltiakov of Ukraine, Ollie Morgan of Great Britain, and Dmitry Savenko of Russia, representing 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 1:58.07 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 2:02.20 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 timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionJack Aikins1:54.252025 United States ChampionshipsHubert Kós1:54.262024 Summer OlympicsRyan Murphy1:54.332024 United States Olympic TrialsHugo González1:54.512024 Spanish TrialsJackson Jones1:54.612024 United States Olympic TrialsApostolos Siskos1:54.662025 Greek ChampionshipsApostolos Christou1:54.822024 Summer OlympicsRoman Mityukov1:54.852024 Summer OlympicsDaniel Diehl1:55.082025 United States ChampionshipsMewen Tomac1:55.382024 Summer Olympics
Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
Heats The heats took place on 31 July at 10:31.
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 5 8 Blake Tierney 1:55.17 Q, NR 2 4 2 Luke Greenbank 1:55.27 Q 3 4 5 Roman Mityukov 1:56.15 Q 4 5 2 Benedek Kovács 1:56.40 Q 5 3 7 Lee Ju-ho 1:56.50 Q 6 5 5 Apostolos Siskos 1:56.55 Q 6 5 7 Kodai Nishiono 1:56.55 Q 8 5 1 Antoine Herlem 1:56.58 Q 9 4 4 Hubert Kós 1:56.71 Q 10 4 8 Joshua Edwards-Smith 1:56.77 Q 11 3 0 Christian Bacico 1:56.79 Q 11 3 8 Jan Čejka 1:56.79 Q 13 4 7 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 1:56.82 Q 14 3 1 John Shortt 1:56.98 Q 15 3 4 Keaton Jones 1:57.00 Q 16 4 3 Pieter Coetze 1:57.11 Q 17 3 3 Thomas Ceccon 1:57.15 18 4 1 Ethan Ekk 1:57.20 19 3 6 Hidekazu Takehara 1:57.25 20 4 6 Lukas Märtens 1:57.31 21 5 3 Oliver Morgan 1:57.57 22 3 2 Bradley Woodward 1:57.71 23 2 3 Inbar Danziger 1:57.82 24 5 4 Jack Aikins 1:58.56 25 5 9 Humberto Nájera 1:58.65 26 2 4 Iván Martínez 1:58.66 27 4 9 Yeziel Morales 1:59.27 28 5 0 Kai van Westering 1:59.93 29 5 6 Dmitrii Savenko Neutral Athletes B 2:00.20 30 3 9 Mohamed-Yassine Ben Abbes 2:00.30 31 2 1 Quah Zheng Wen 2:00.58 32 2 2 Jack Harvey 2:01.50 33 3 5 Oleksandr Zheltyakov 2:02.17 34 1 4 Edhy Vargas 2:02.29 NR 34 2 5 Yu Jingming 2:02.29 36 2 7 Nikolass Deičmans 2:02.50 37 2 6 Hayden Kwan 2:03.09 38 2 8 Guðmundur Leo Rafnsson 2:03.36 39 1 5 Alexis Kpade 2:06.23 40 1 3 Gleb Kovalenya 2:10.35 4 0 Ksawery Masiuk
Semifinals The semifinals took place on 31 July at 20:31.
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 1 8 Pieter Coetze 1:54.22 Q, AF 2 2 1 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 1:54.47 Q, NR 3 2 2 Hubert Kós 1:54.64 Q 4 2 5 Roman Mityukov 1:54.83 Q, NR 5 2 4 Blake Tierney 1:55.03 Q, NR 6 1 3 Apostolos Siskos 1:55.06 Q 7 1 7 Jan Čejka 1:55.46 Q, NR 8 1 4 Luke Greenbank 1:55.64 Q 9 2 3 Lee Ju-ho 1:55.70 NR 10 2 7 Christian Bacico 1:56.02 11 2 6 Kodai Nishiono 1:56.04 12 2 8 Keaton Jones 1:56.20 13 1 2 Joshua Edwards-Smith 1:56.28 14 1 5 Benedek Kovács 1:56.69 15 1 1 John Shortt 1:57.30 16 1 6 Antoine Herlem 1:57.45
Final The final took place on 1 August at 19:59.
Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 3 Hubert Kós 1:53.19 ER 4 Pieter Coetze 1:53.36 AF 5 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 1:54.62 4 2 Blake Tierney 1:55.09 5 7 Apostolos Siskos 1:55.13 6 1 Jan Čejka 1:55.37 NR 7 6 Roman Mityukov 1:55.57 8 8 Luke Greenbank 1:56.26
References