Olympic champions Duncan Scott, Matt Richards and James Guy were among those who delivered a host of spectacular swims during six days of action at London’s iconic Aquatics Centre, but the 2025 Aquatics GB Championships also saw a host of rising stars shine.
Paris 2024 Olympian Angharad Evans set the quickest time in the world this year for the women’s 100m breaststroke, with 1:05:37, also breaking the previous British record.
She will be among eight, of the 28 GB athletes selected for Singapore 2025, who will make their long course World Aquatics Championships debuts across July and August.
Performance director Chris Spice stated he “couldn’t be happier” with what he witnessed from the British swimmers, particularly so early in the ‘Olympic cycle’ leading to LA 2028.
While three-time Olympic champion Adam Peaty has confirmed his return to the sport, following the addition of the 50m breaststroke event to the programme for the next Games, he will not star in Singapore, but in his absence, a host of new contenders aim to emerge.
Here World Aquatics takes a look at some of the most spectacular swims from the 2025 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and what they might mean for Great Britain’s hopes of success in Singapore this summer.
Duncan Scott – Gold 200m Butterfly, 200m IM, 200m Freestyle
The now 27-year-old became Scotland’s most decorated Olympian in history, from any sport, following his gold and silver at Paris 2024, which took his career tally to eight medals.
He has firms plans to add to that in the years ahead and warmed up for his main 200m individual medley and 200m freestyle events in London with victory in the 200m butterfly.
Scott has opted against contesting the latter at Singapore 2025, but will line-up for the 200m IM, in which he won silver at Paris 2024 and Tokyo 2020, after a commanding victory.
1:56.44 the third quickest time recorded in the event so far this year and was just 0.09 off the world lead recorded by Tomoyuki Matsushita (JPN) in March.
A question mark surrounds who will race the 200m freestyle in Singapore though. Matt Richards was pre-selected owing to the silver medal he won in the event at Paris 2024, with the Aquatics GB Championship winner, or runner-up, due to join him.
However, Scott and Guy rounded off a spectacular final night by achieving victory in the same time, with Richards third, giving Spice something of a dilemma.
“Me and Jim have been racing for so long and it’s always a pleasure,” said Scott. “I’ve surprised myself quite a lot as I wasn’t sure where I’d be this week, so I’m just buzzing.”
Matt Richards – Gold 100m Freestyle; Bronze 200m Freestyle
He was part of the British men’s 4x200m freestyle Olympic gold medal-winning line-up at Tokyo 2020 when he was 18-years-old, but his rapid rise appeared to take its toll the following year, placing 30th in the 200m free at the Budapest World Championships.
The Welshman’s form returned for Fukuoka 2023 though, winning gold in the 200m event, before taking silver, 0.02 secs off David Popovici’s winning time, at Paris 2024.
He won the 100m freestyle final at the Aquatics GB Championships and due to being pre-selected for the 200m he experimented with a different race tactic in the longer-distance event, with James Guy describing it as “going out like a maniac.”
Richards himself said it was a “painful, but good lesson” before confirming he would not try it again. He will though likely be one of Britain’s major individual medal prospects in Singapore.
“I’m really happy with where I’m at, at the moment,” he told World Aquatics. “I was a little disappointed after Paris with it (second in the 200m), but on reflection I still came away with a gold (4x200m free relay) and silver.
“I want to go out to the Worlds and hit them really hard, I always want to win races no matter where that is so I’ll be going into the Worlds with that attitude.”
James Guy – Gold 200m freestyle, 400m Freestyle; Bronze 200m butterfly
While Richards may have the recent individual medal-winning pedigree, Guy is showing that age is not necessarily a barrier to performance, with the 29-year-old now demonstrating some of the best form of his career ahead of what he hopes will be a fourth Games in 2028.
He made his name internationally by winning 200m freestyle gold and 400m freestyle silver at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, but dropped the longer distance event three years later after claiming bronze at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Guy instead focused on the 100m butterfly to boost his mixed medley relay prospects, but he revealed ahead of the GB trials that he was now “done with fly” and would restore his original freestyle double ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics.
He eased to victory in the 400m freestyle at the Aquatics GB Championships, although his time of 3:46.64 puts him tenth in the world this year. His 200m shared victory in 1:45.08 has been beaten by only two men in 2025 though.
“This is probably going to be my last Olympics where I go for it,” he said. “I’m kind of the old guy now, but it’s good to see new people coming through and I’m enjoying racing out there.”
Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay Team – GB Go For Gold AGAIN
Regardless of who is selected for the individual 200m freestyle event, Scott, Richards and Guy will all appear in the 4x200m freestyle team in Singapore.
They, together with Tom Dean, became the first swimmers in history to defend an Olympic relay title with exactly the same line-up when they followed up Tokyo 2020 gold with another victory at Paris 2024.
As such, the quartet were pre-selected for the World Championships team, but Dean is taking a more ‘relaxed’ approach to 2025 and contested only one individual event at the trials, the 100m freestyle, in which he placed third.
He is therefore likely to line-up in both the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle teams and leave individual contests until the 2026 campaign.
Ben Proud – Gold 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly
Proud finally ended his often-heart-breaking bid for an Olympic medal with 50m freestyle silver at Paris 2024, following fourth and fifth-place finishes at the previous two Games.
Now free of the ‘curse’, the swimmer insists he heads into the journey towards LA28 free of the pressure he has placed on himself in previous years, now he has attained a medal at each major championships, across Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Games.
He won the World 50m butterfly title in 2017 and despite it being arguably his favoured event, Proud has largely see it as a ‘fun’ addition to his programme due to it not being part of the Olympic line-up. That has now changed and he is likely to target both the 50m free and fly disciplines seriously over the next three years.
“I had to spent five days watching people before I could get in there, but I enjoyed a little racing under pressure in-season and the challenges coming in,” said Proud.
Ollie Morgan – Gold 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke
The only British swimmer to claim a hat-trick of victories in one stroke at the home of the London 2012 Olympic Games was Ollie Morgan, who completed the backstroke treble for the second time in his career.
The first came during his breakout year in 2023 and while he was competitive a year on at Paris 2024, where he placed eighth in the 100m final, the 21-year-old believes he can now target major individual honours in the years ahead.
52.12, which was a new British record, and the second quickest time recorded this year in the event, certainly suggests he is capable of doing just that.
And further evidence came in the 200m backstroke final, with 1:55.55 currently the world lead time.
“Training has been wicked and swims have been really fun so it’s nice to have been able to put it all together at trials,” he said.
Angharad Evans – Gold 100m, 200m Breaststroke
The most outstanding performance of the meet on the British women’s side was undoubtedly that delivered by Angharad Evans, who continues to build on the momentum generated in her breakthrough championships 12 months ago.
After her maiden victory at the 2024 Championships led to Olympic selection she would set a new British record, of 1:05.54 ahead of the Games before placing sixth in Paris.
Now in 2025, she looks strong in multiple distances, but the 100m will remain her focus and her latest landmark time of 1:05.37 currently identifies her as a gold medal contender for Singapore 2025.
“This has been a journey to get here and moving to Stirling (Scotland, from the USA), has definitely brought the best out of me,” she said. “Knowing I’d already qualified (from the 200m) helped (the 100m) and to go a British record in April is amazing.”
Abbie Wood – Gold 200m and 400m Individual Medley
The Englishwoman won her maiden international title at the 2015 European Games, which was largely a junior competition. She narrowly missed out a place at the Rio 2016 Olympics and struggled for several years while transitioning to senior swimming.
A breakthrough came in 2021 with her first maiden individual European honour, silver in the 200m individual medley, before Commonwealth success the following year.
Wood cut a frustrated figure as she placed fourth at Tokyo 2020 and fifth at Paris 2024, but two maiden World short course bronze medals at the end of last year provided a welcome moral boost.
Her 200m IM time of 2:08.55, has beaten by only one swimmer so far this season, Canadian Olympic champion Summer McIntosh, while Wood is fourth in the 400m IM standings.
“It’s pretty cool to go life-time best as my last (in that event) was 2017,” she said. “I can’t say I enjoyed it (the race) as it hurt a lot, but I’ve actually enjoyed the training and it’s been nice to have a different focus (from the 200m IM).”
Freya Colbert – Gold 200m Freestyle; Silver 400m Individual Medley
Aged 20, she placed an impressive fourth and just 0.74secs short of the podium places at Paris 2024 in the 400m individual medley, but now she is aiming to be a multi-event force.
Her 200m freestyle time, of 1:55.76, is the third quickest in the world so far this year, while she is well-placed in the 400m IM rankings, despite finishing behind team-mate and rival Wood at the British Championships.
“I’m definitely going to be taking the 400m IM into Worlds, but I’ve taken a little step back since the Games to focus on my 200m free and the 200m backstroke to improve a bit of speed skills which I hadn’t had time to work on before Paris,” she tells World Aquatics.
Eva Okaro – Gold 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly; Silver 100m Freestyle
The teenager rounded off a history-making year, which had seen her become the first black woman to represent Great Britain in an Olympic swimming pool, at Paris 2024, by setting a new short course world junior record, of 23.66 secs in the 50m freestyle at Budapest 2024.
She placed fourth in that final and just over four months on the swimmer is gaining further strength and speed, winning the GB 50m freestyle and butterfly titles for the first time.
Okaro, who has a Nigerian father and Polish mother, looks well-placed to fill the void left by Tokyo 2020 Olympic mixed relay champion Anna Hopkin, who retired after Paris 2024, with her 50m freestyle time of 24.48 currently the fifth quickest recorded this year.
“I wasn’t expecting it, but it’s great to go those times and to know I’m going to Singapore,” she said. “I’ve been working on my starts and underwaters which definitely helping.”
Other GB Ones-To-Watch At Singapore 2025
Other British swimmers achieving golden doubles, who have been selected for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, are Katie Shanahan (100m / 200m backstroke), Keanna Macinnes (100m / 200m butterfly) and Greg Butler (100m / 200m breaststroke).
Butler, Evans, Evan Jones, Holly McGill, Ed Mildred, Jacob Mills, Max Morgan, Okaro and Leah Schlosshan will all make their senior long course World Championship debuts during the swimming programme, which runs from 27 July to 3 August.
Great Britain Team For Singapore 2025:
- Freya Anderson, University of Stirling
- Greg Butler, Loughborough Performance Centre
- Freya Colbert, Loughborough Performance Centre
- Lauren Cox, Loughborough Performance Centre
- Tom Dean, Bath Performance Centre
- Angharad Evans, University of Stirling
- Luke Greenbank, Loughborough Performance Centre
- James Guy, Manchester Performance Centre
- Lucy Hope, University of Stirling
- Evan Jones, Manchester Performance Centre
- Max Litchfield, Loughborough Performance Centre
- Keanna MacInnes, University of Stirling
- Jack McMillan, University of Stirling
- Jonathon Marshall, Carnegie Swimming Club
- Holly McGill, University of Stirling
- Edward Mildred, Manchester Performance Centre
- Jacob Mills, Repton
- Max Morgan, Reeds Swimming Club
- Oliver Morgan, University of Birmingham
- Eva Okaro, Repton
- Ben Proud, Chelsea & Westminster Swimming Club
- Emily Richards, Manchester Performance Centre
- Matt Richards, Manchester Performance Centre
- Leah Schlosshan, Manchester Performance Centre
- Duncan Scott, University of Stirling
- Katie Shanahan, University of Stirling
- Abbie Wood, Loughborough Performance Centre
- Jacob Whittle, Bath Performance Centre