Britain’s next generation excel at World Junior Swimming Championships

Having starred at the European juniors earlier in the summer, Filip Nowacki and Dean Fearn upgraded their continental titles to world junior golds in Romania – while Theodora Taylor and Jacob Mills both secured a brace of individual freestyle medals around their roles in anchoring Britain to three relay medals at the curtain call event of the 2025 long course season.

It was Amelie Smith however who opened the medal count with the first of her two silvers coming in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley of the primary night of finals. Smith – who celebrated her 16th birthday while in Otopeni – returned to the podium again in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley event, with both performances exemplifying her ability to cut up through the field on the breaststroke leg to set up a strong finish.

Nowacki’s golden moments began with a lifetime best in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke, where he was joined on the podium by Max Morgan who took bronze, before triumph in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke in a Championship Record time of 2:07.32 – which equally lowered his own European Junior record – in a hard battle with Japan’s Shin Ohashi.

Speaking after his wins, Nowacki said to World Aquatics: “I’m over the moon with that, I’ve come off a successful European Juniors so to back it up again, it’s amazing.

“In the UK, most clubs stop training at the end of July. So going into August, I booked my own lane and my coach Kieran [Piper] has been sending me over my training sessions from the UK. I've been having to do them by myself, it's been a real tough challenge.”

“I had a race plan [for the 200m] and I stuck to as best as I could - I think I executed it pretty well considering it was a world championship final. I'm definitely a back-end swimmer, so I tried to push as hard as I could in that third 50m, I could feel Shin coming up on me on that last length, so I’m very happy to have touched first.”

Fearn meanwhile had already bagged a bronze in the Men’s 100m Butterfly ahead of hearing the national anthem ring out for his Men’s 50m Butterly victory – getting his hand to the wall a tenth of a second ahead of his rivals in the one length showdown.

“I just can't process it yet,” said the Aberdeen Dolphins’ swimmer of his gold.

“The race is so quick, it's over and done in such a short time period. But to come out on top is just unreal. It wasn't the time I was hoping for, but to get the touch, it's amazing, it's really great. And it's only up from here. It's my first World Juniors so to get gold individually, it's honestly amazing.”

Nowacki and Fearn both had equally integral parts to play in Britain’s medley relay successes too, supplying the breaststroke and butterfly legs in the Men’s and Mixed event finals.

Silver in the Men’s 4x100m Medley was kicked off by Daniel Ransom, with Jacob Mills doing his best to rein in the leaders on the anchor leg as the British quartet were ultimately just touched out from victory by two hundredths - while Max Morgan and Gabriel Shepherd earnt medals too for their valuable contribution in qualifying.

Britain’s Mixed 4x100m Medley team was led off by Blythe Kinsman – who would also go on to achieve an individual world bronze in the Women’s 50m Backstroke on the penultimate day of the meet – with Nowacki again coming in for Morgan from heats to final. Theodora Taylor’s versatility meanwhile was on full display as she moved to the anchor role after producing butterfly leg in qualifying, with Fearn entering the finals line-up for Mills as another bronze was added to the medal haul in a European Junior record mark of 3:46.43.

Taylor and Mills both had individual medal successes in their respective Women’s and Men’s 50m and 100m Freestyle events – with Mills’ pair of individual silvers coming as he made history in becoming the first 17-year-old to have broken both the 22-second and 48-second barrier over the distances during the course of the championships.

The pair’s freestyle firepower additionally aided Great Britain’s impressive Mixed 4x100m Freestyle - joining forces with Shepherd and Skye Carter to push within 0.14 seconds of the win in securing a silver medal on the world stage in a new European Junior record time of 3:26.17.

Remarking on the success of the championships Aquatics GB Performance Pathway Lead – Swimming, Euan Dale said:

“I’m incredibly proud of our junior swimmers’ efforts this summer and their investment in our team-first ethos. This is of course just one stepping stone of a much longer journey, but it’s been a great experience for the group to test themselves in the competition arena as they learn and develop towards furthering their own future performance potential.

“The growing depth of success among our junior cohort is a testament to the foundational work of the home nation talent pathways and club coaches, and we will continue to closely support them in creating such environments in which our next generation can thrive.”

World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships medallists

Gold

Filip Nowacki – Men’s 100m Breaststroke and Men’s 200m Breaststroke

Dean Fearn – Men’s 50m Butterfly

Silver

Amalie Smith – Women’s 200m Individual Medley and Women’s 400m Individual Medley

Jacob Mills – Men’s 50m Freestyle and Men’s 100m Freestyle

Theodora Taylor – Women’s 50m Freestyle

Great Britain (Gabriel Shepherd, Jacob Mills, Skye Carter, Theodora Taylor) – Mixed 4x100m Freestyle

Great Britain (Daniel Ransom, Filip Nowacki, Dean Fearn, Jacob Mills, Max Morgan, Gabriel Shepherd) – Men’s 4x100m Medley

Bronze

Max Morgan – Men’s 100m Breaststroke

Dean Fearn – Men’s 100m Butterfly

Blythe Kinsman – Women’s 50m Backstroke

Theodora Taylor – Women’s 100m Freestyle

Great Britain (Blythe Kinsman, Filip Nowacki, Dean Fearn, Theodora Taylor, Max Morgan, Jacob Mills) – Mixed 4x100m Medley

Full results can be found on the World Aquatics website, with live streaming playback available on Eurovision Sport Platforms.