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 IM, 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 4×200 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.
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).
American Kate Douglass got the U.S. its fifth individual gold in these championships, taking the 200 breaststroke in 2:18.50, the second fastest in history. Evgeniia Chikunova was second (2:19.96). Kaylene Corbett of South Africa and Alina Zmushka 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.
In the men’s 4×200 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.
