The 22nd World Aquatics Championships to be held in Singapore this July will include both traditional and new open water swimming events between July 15th – 20th.

The races start at 8:00 am on Palawan Beach on Sentosa is an island resort off Singapore’s southern coast. Spectators can get to the island from the city via road, cable car, pedestrian boardwalk and monorail.

World Championship Schedule

• July 15th: women’s 10 km race
• July 16th: men’s 10 km race
• July 17th: rest day
• July 18th: women’s 5 km and men’s 5 km races
• July 19th: men’s 3 km Knockout Sprints and women’s 3 km Knockout Sprints
• July 20th: mixed 4x1500m relay

3 km Knockout Sprints

The cancellation of the traditional 25 km marathon swim – that started at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, Australia as the sole open water event, created a vacuum in the open water schedule. Originally discussed for many years within FINA and World Aquatics Technical Open Water Swimming Committee members, the new event was first tested at the 2024 World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships in Sardinia, Alghero, Italy to great success and fanfare.

The 3 km Knockout Sprints are a series of 3 races of decreasing distances held over a short time period where the top finishers advance to the semifinal and final rounds. In that World Aquatics test event in Sardinia, Kaito Tsujimori of Japan and Claire Weinstein of the USA finished first in Round 3 to win gold.

Similar to the 5 km and 10 km races, each country may enter a maximum of 2 males and 2 females in the Knockout Sprints.

For Round 1, the entry list will be published in advance of the Team Leaders Meeting. The number of heats to be swum in Round 1 and Round 2 is determined after all the entries have been received and announced at the Team Leaders Meeting. For Round 2, there is a maximum of 2 heats.

In Round 1, each swimmer swim 1.5 km. The swimmers who advance to Round 2 swim 1 km. The swimmers who advance to Round 3 swim 500 meters.

The top 10 finishers from each heat in Round 1 advance to Round 2 – or 2 heats based on the decisions made at the Team Leaders Meeting. If there is 1 heat in Round 2, the top 10 swimmers from Round 2 advance to the Round 3 final. If there are 2 heats in Round 2, the top 10 finishers from each heat will advance to the Round 3 final.

Interestingly and appropriately (in our opinion), if a swimmer receives a 1st infringement during Rounds 1 or Round 2, then this penalty remains in place as the swimmer advances forward in any Rounds. If the swimmer is disqualified or withdraws from Round 2 or Round 3, the position that the swimmer would have finished is awarded to the next competitor and all the lower placing swimmers are advanced one place in the Round 2 semifinal or the Round 3 final.

The podium finishers (gold + silver + bronze medalists) are the top 3 swimmers in Round 3.

Impressions

World Aquatics TOWSC Chairman Sid Cassidy explains, “The first time we ran the 3 km Knockout Sprints was in Italy at the Junior World Championships. It was really well received. We had to come up with an event that would be a little bit different [than our previous formats], but would replace the loss of the 25K event. Compared to the 25 km marathon swimmers, the 3 km Knockout Sprint swimmers are a completely different type of athlete that we are going to attract with this type of event. But the Knockout Sprints are still promoting open water swimming. Hopefully, it will be a bridge to bring more elite distance pool swimmers into the open water.“

Greece’s Vasileios Kakoulakis loved the first time that he competed in the Knockout Sprints where he finished second. “It was a very fun race, [it was] interesting also because it’s an open category so there were a lot of fast swimmers. From my side, it was very fun and I liked it very much. My strategy was to be in the top ten every round. I was purposely being in last place at the start so I would have a bit more energy to the last meters. It worked out. Every time [during Round 1 and Round 2], I was finishing in eighth or ninth place so I was saving a lot of energy. In the last 500 meters, I wasn’t sure of my place. I was ninth, I think, at the beginning. I thought, ‘I am in the top ten in the world so I’m good.’ But I had more energy in me so I managed to get to the front.”

Similarly, Weinstein paced herself well enough to win by 9 seconds in the Round 3 final. “I wasn’t really focused on winning the 1500 meter or 1000 meters. I was just focused on getting to that 500 meter because I know that once I got to the 500 meters, I would have enough speed to do very well, and I knew it was the same for [her American teammate] Brinkleigh Hansen. We both swim the 200m freestyle in the pool so I think this race is perfect for us. I can be an advocate to include this race in future competitions because I loved that event. It was really fun, other people enjoyed it too.”

Timeline

The men’s Round 1 started at 9:00 am. Semifinal Round 2 started at 9:30 am. Final Round 3 started at 9:50 am – so the entire event was over within 1 hour.

The women’s Round 1 started at 11:30 am. Semifinal Round 2 started at 12:00 pm. Final Round 3 started at 12:20 pm – so the entire event was over within 1 hour.

Course Overview

Mixed 4x1500m Relay

Each country relay is represented by 2 female and 2 male swimmers who each complete a 1.5 km lap in any order of their choosing. Each swimmer must visibly touch their teammate on the relay changeovers, whether the changeovers are in the water or on the floating starting pontoon.

Photos courtesy of Deepbluemedia.

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