Saudi Arabia’s Mashael Alobaidan and teammate Dani Clos win season opener of UIM E1 World Championship

SINGAPORE: The gold medals were spread around on Friday at the swimming world championships, thanks to the absence of stars Léon Marchand of France and Canadian Summer McIntosh from any finals on Day 6 in Singapore.

Marchand, who has already broken the world record in the 200-meter individual medley, will try to break his own 400 IM record on Sunday, the final day.

McIntosh has won three individual gold medals already and will chase two more on Saturday and Sunday as she tries for five individual golds. Only Michael Phelps has managed that at the worlds.

The biggest race of the championships might be Saturday’s 800-meter freestyle with McIntosh and American Katie Ledecky – the world-record holder – the favorites.

The Netherlands, China, Hungary and the United States picked up individual golds Friday as the meet continues to spread them around. Britain also won its first gold and first medal in Singapore, taking the men’s 4x200 relay.

Through six days the United States and Australia top the gold-medal table with five each. The Americans have won 20 overall to 13 for Australia.

Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands powered through the last 50 meters to win the women’s 100-meter freestyle. Steenbergen won in 52.55 seconds, with silver for Mollie O’Callaghan (52.67) of Australia and bronze to Torri Huske (52.89) of the United States.

Steenbergen won this event at the 2024 worlds in Doha, but those championships were lightly attended. This race had a tough field. Both O’Callaghan and Huske are Olympic individual champions, but not in this event.

“It feels so crazy,” Steenbergen said. “In Doha, it was like, ‘OK, this is crazy to win.’ But in this field, I don’t know what to feel. I’m just so happy.”

It was the first gold medal for the Netherlands in Singapore.

Qin wins again

China’s Qin Haiyang, who holds the world record, won the men’s 200 breaststroke in 2:07.41 with second for Ippei Watanabe (2:07.70) of Japan and bronze to Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands (2:07.73). Haiyang also won the 100 breaststroke in Singapore.

Haiyang swam from Lane 8 and called winning from that far outside position “a miracle.” He set the world record two years ago in the worlds in Fukuoka, Japan (2:05.48).

Hubert Kós of Hungary repeated his gold medal from a year ago at the Paris Olympics, winning the men’s 200 backstroke in 1:53.19. Pieter Coetze of South Africa, who won the 100 back, took silver (1:53.36) with bronze for Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of France (1:54.62).

Kate Douglass delivers

American Kate Douglass got the US its fifth individual gold in these championships, taking the 200 breaststroke in 2:18.50, the second fastest in history. Evgeniia Chikunova of the Neutral Athletes was second (2:19.96). Kaylene Corbett of South Africa and Alina Zmushka of the Neutral Athletes tied for bronze (2:23.52).

The Americans have been slowed through the championships with dozens of members of the team having picked up “acute gastroenteritis” at a training camp in Thailand before arriving in Singapore. Head Coach Greg Meehan said the “overall majority” of the team had been affected.

In the men’s 4x200 freestyle relay, Britain won its first gold and first medal with a time of 6:59.84.

China took silver (7:00.91) with bronze for Australia (7:00.98). The United States was fourth in 7:01.24.

In Friday’s semifinals, Cameron McEvoy of Australia was fastest in the men’s 50 free (21.30) and Noè Ponti of Switzerland led qualifying in the men’s 100-meter butterfly in 50.18. Gretchen Walsh of the United States was quickest in the women’s 50 fly (25.09) and Peng Xuwei of China was quickest in the 200 backstroke (2:07.76).

12-year-old Yu gets a medal

Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi has won a bronze medal at the swim world championships, an astounding feat for a girl who would be a sixth- or seventh-grade student depending on the school system.

Yu earned the medal by swimming in the prelims of China’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay team. She did not swim in the final on Thursday — China placed third behind winning Australia and the United States — but gets a bronze medal as a team member.

She’s been close to winning an individual medal, placing fourth in both the 200 butterfly and the 200 individual medley. She still has the 400 IM to swim.

Brent Nowicki, the executive director of World Aquatics, said the governing body would look at its age-limit rules. The limit is now 14, but athletes can reach the worlds if they surpass a tough time standard.

“I didn’t think I’d have this conversation, but now I think we have to go back and say is this appropriate?” he said this week in Singapore. “Is this really the right way to go forward and do we need to do other things? Put other guardrails up? Do we allow it under certain conditions? I don’t know the answer.”

He called Yu “great.” He also said officials had to be “careful” about the age issue.