With four individual gold medals on offer on day two expect another action-packed night of racing at the Aspire Dome.

Swimming | Men’s 100m Breaststroke

Before racing began at the Aspire Dome this week the Men’s 100m Breaststroke was already expected to be one of the drawcard events of Doha 2024. Then Adam Peaty showed up with the fastest time in the semi finals to further build the anticipation for tonight’s stacked final. Peaty will swim from lane four and will be flanked by the trio of Nic Fink (lane five), Arno Kamminga (lane three), and Nicolo Martinenghi (lane six), being the three swimmers that dead-heated for silver behind the absent Qin Haiyang in one of the most memorable race finishes of Fukuoka 2023. The trio were also the three medallists at Budapest 2022, where Martineneghi won his first individual world title, while Peaty was the world champion at Kazan 2015, Budapest 2017, and Gwangju 2019 where he set the still standing world record in the semi finals.

Adding either further intrigue in tonight’s final in the outside lanes is the addition of Caspar Corbeau the 201cm giant who in the past two months has posted career-best times across all three breaststroke distances, Ilya Shymanovich, the current world record holder in the short course 100m Breaststroke and swimming here as a neutral independent athlete, and Australian Sam Williamson who has the fastest entry time for the Men’s 50m Breaststroke.

Top Qualified:

• 58.60 – Adam Peaty (GBR)
• 58.73 – Nic Fink (USA)
• 58.87 – Arno Kamminga (NED)

Best Entry Times:

• 58.36 – Nic Fink (USA)
• 58.68 – Arno Kamminga (NED)
• 58.72 – Nicolo Martinenghi (ITA)

Fukuoka 2023:

• 57.69 – Gold: Qin Haiyang (57.69)
• 58.72 – Silver: Nicolo Martinenghi (ITA)
• 58.72 – Silver: Arno Kamminga (NED)
• 58.72 – Silver: Nic Fink (USA)

Records:

• 56.88 – World: Adam Peaty (GBR), 2019
• 56.88 – Championship: Adam Peaty (GBR), 2019

Swimming | Women’s 100m Butterfly

Germany’s Angelina Kohler will start tonight’s Women’s 100m Butterfly race as the top qualifier as the 23-year-old chases her first World Aquatics Championships medal at her fourth career championships. Kohler’s personal best of 56.11 in the semi-finals last night rockets the German up to ninth on the all-time swimmer rankings in this event. It was a time that eclipsed all but one swim in the entire 2023 season and was faster than Zhang Yufei’s gold medal-winning time at Fukuoka 2023.

It has been fifteen years since Germany’s last gold medal in an individual female event when Britta Steffan did the 50/100m Freestyle double at Rome 2009. Out to prevent Germany’s first world title of Doha 2024 will be Claire Curzan who clocked the fastest 2023 time of all of tonight’s finalists and entered this competition with the fastest time on paper. Despite her only individual World Aquatics Championships medal coming in the 100m Backstroke at Budapest 2022, Curzan is the current holder of the World Junior Record in this event (56.43).

Also chasing individual success in tonight’s final will be one of the stalwarts of the Australian team, Brianna Throssell. The 28-year-old is one of the most credentialed swimmers on the Australian team in Doha with last night’s silver in the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay her thirteenth career World Aquatics Championships medal. However all thirteen of Throssell’s medals have come in relay swims, and therefore tonight the Western Australian will have one of the best opportunities of her career to finally claim that elusive individual medal.

Throssell will also go into tonight’s final with some fond memories of racing in Qatar, with just the second medal of her senior international career coming in Doha back at the 2014 World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m).

Top Qualified:

• 56.11 – Angelina Kohler (GER)
• 57.06 – Claire Curzan (USA)
• 57.22 – Brianna Throssell (AUS)

Best Entry Times:

• 56.61 – Claire Curzan (USA)
• 57.00 – Louise Hansson (SWE)
• 57.05 – Angelina Kohler (GER)

Fukuoka 2023:

• 56.12 – Gold: Zhang Yufei (CHN)
• 56.45 – Silver: Maggie MacNeil (CAN)
• 56.61 – Bronze: Torri Huske (USA)

Records:

• 55.48 – World: Sarah Sjoestroem (SWE), 2016
• 55.53 – Championship: Sarah Sjoestroem (SWE), 2017

Swimming | Men’s 50m Butterfly

A new world champion will be crowned tonight in the Men’s 50m Butterfly with just 0.06 splitting the career-best times of Michael Andrew (22.79), Diogo Matos Ribeiro (22.80), and Dylan Carter (22.85). Matos Ribeiro is the World Junior Record holder and had a breakout senior international debut at Fukuoka 2023 where he won silver in this event. That medal was Portugal’s first World Aquatics Championships medal of any colour across all six disciplines and tonight the 19-year-old will be aiming for a maiden world title for his nation.

Also chasing history tonight for his country is Dylan Carter who will line up alongside Matos Ribeiro in lane five. Like his Portuguese rival, Carter was also a World Junior Championships medallist back in 2013, and despite medals at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in 2018, 2019 & 2022, he is still chasing his first World Aquatics Championships medal.

A win tonight for Carter would also be a first world title across any of the six disciplines for Trinidad and Tobago, with the nation’s sole medal to date a bronze medal in the Men’s 50m Freestyle won by George Bovell at Barcelona 2013. A gold medal tonight may catapult Carter into the realm of Bovell who was an Olympic medallist in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley, the short course world record holder in the same event from 2004-2005, and who is still the eighth fastest man ever in the 50m Freestyle (21.20).

The fourth fastest man ever on that list with Bovell, Cameron McEvoy, will also race tonight, albeit switching from his pet event the 50m Freestyle to the 50m Butterfly. Pre-Fukuoka McEvoy clocked the fastest 50m Butterfly time of his career at the Australian Trials (23.07) and he was just outside that time in the semi-finals here in Doha. The 50m Butterfly is the only 50m Australian Record male or female that still stands from the supersuit era (22.73).

Standing in the way of McEvoy, Carter and Matos Ribeiro is the United States of America’s Michael Andrew. The 25-year-old missed the Fukuoka 2023 team following a standout championships at Budapest 2022 where he medalled in three of the four 50m events. Andrew is the only man under 23.00 this year and tonight will be chasing his first individual world title.

Finally, keep any eye on Spain’s Mario Molla Yanes who will make his World Aquatics Championship final debut in lane three. Molla Yanes was just 0.01 outside his personal best in the semis and another personal best tonight may see him in the mix for medals.

Top Qualified:

• 22.94 – Michael Andrew (USA)
• 23.15 – Dylan Carter (TTO)
• 23.17 – Mario Molla Yanes (ESP)

Best Entry Times:

• 22.80 – Diogo Matos Ribeiro (POR)
• 22.85 – Michael Andrew (USA)
• 22.89 – Dylan Carter (TTO)

Fukuoka 2023:

• 22.68 – Gold: Thomas Ceccon (ITA)
• 22.80 – Silver: Diogo Ribeiro (POR)
• 22.82 – Bronze: Maxime Grousset (FRA) 

Records:

• 22.27 – World: Andrii Govorov (UKR), 2018
• 22.35 – Championship: Caeleb Dressel (USA), 2019

Swimming | Women’s 200m Ind Medley

Defending champion Kate Douglass will enter tonight’s final as top seed after a comfortable swim in the semi finals on day one of competition. The breaststroker is now the sixth fastest swimmer of all time in this event, and if she is anywhere near the lead at the 100m turn, there will be few in the field that will be able to match the 22 year-old.

The People’s Republic of China’s Yu Yiting was third to Douglass in Fukuoka and then went on to post a career-best time in this event at the Asian Games two months later. That swim catapulted the Chinese teenager into tenth on the all-time rankings, and like Douglass she will be aiming to be just the fifth swimmer to go under the 2:07 mark.

Gwangju 2019 bronze medallist Sydney Pickrem will also be chasing medals this evening as she attempts to become the first Canadian of any gender to win a world title in the 200m Individual Medley since Graham Smith won the sole World Aquatics Championships gold of his career back at Berlin 1978.

Top Qualified:

• 2:08.41 – Kate Douglass (USA)
• 2:08.76 – Sydney Pickrem (CAN)
• 2:08.83 – Yu Yiting (CHN) 

Best Entry Times:

• 2:07.09 – Kate Douglass (USA)
• 2:08.61 – Sydney Pickrem (CAN)
• 2:09.16 – Marrit Steenbergen (NED)

Fukuoka 2023: 

• 2:07.17 – Gold: Kate Douglass (USA)
• 2:07.97 – Silver: Alexandra Walsh (USA)
• 2:08.74 – Bronze: Yu Yiting (CHN) 

Records:

• 2:06.12 – World: Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 2015
• 2:06.12 – Championship: Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 2015