Ellard, Maskill and Tai on top in World Champs opening act

There were nine medals for the British team on the opening day of action at the OCBC Aquatic Centre for the Singapore 2025 World Para Swimming Championships – with Brock Whiston, Ellie Challis, Louise Fiddes, Iona Winnifrith, Ela Letton-Jones and Astrid Carroll all making a trip to the podium in addition the world title winning trio of Tai, Ellard and Maskill.

Alice Tai and Brock Whiston set the tone for a fast evening of racing in Singapore as they took to the centre lanes of the Women’s S8 400m Freestyle in the second scheduled finals race of the event programme.

Whiston had produced the fastest swim in qualifying and got off to a quick start, with Tai closely tracking her on the other side of the lane rope. The British pair continued to push on and by the halfway stage had already generated a significant gap on the rest of the field - though remained separated themselves by less than half a second.

In a race destined to go down to the wire, Tai made her move to edge into the lead at the final turn to set up a scintillating sprint to the wall. Whiston gave everything to the closing chase, but it was Tai at the start of her fifth world championships that would claim the gold.

“It was such a great race between me and Brock and I’m so happy to be on the podium with my teammate, and alongside Nahia [Zudaire Borrezo] – her crying was just setting me off – so yeah I’m really happy to be sharing the podium with these two,” said Tai.

“For me I approached this race just happy to get top five. There’s some incredible names in this event and so to win silver is incredible. The emotion on the podium just shows you what sport is all about,” added Whiston.

The S14 200m Freestyle events produced back-to-back golden moments with Will Ellard setting a world record mark to be victorious in the Men’s event just minutes before Poppy Maskill held strong down a last length battle to claim the Women’s world title.

Ellard set off from the gun underneath the Men’s S14 world record pace he produced in Paris just over 12 months ago and looked in control of his contest throughout as he stopped the clock on 1:51.08 – shaving over two tenths off his former mark.

Reflecting on his swim after the race, Ellard said:

“I feel really good, I was maybe expecting to go a bit faster but I think I went out a bit quick and it just got to me in my head – I thought about the time rather than the swim itself.

“It was a good race and I’m delighted to get gold, Bandeira was quite close there and that’s good to have to push me on. It’s been a quite chilled out year after Paris, so hopefully Commonwealth year in 2026 I can getting better and keep pushing this freestyle on.”

Maskill was joined by strong British company in the Women’s S14 medal showdown as she walked out to take her lane position between Louise Fiddes and Georgia Sheffield.

A nip and tuck final ensued, with Maskill moving to spearhead the race down the penultimate length and holding off the fast finish of Paralympic champion, Valeriia Shabalina (NPA) to claim her first-ever individual world title.

Fiddes stormed in over the closing 50m to secure a third consecutive world bronze in the Women's S14 200m Freestyle event, while Georgia Sheffield placed just outside the medals in fourth on her return to the global stage.

“I’m in shock! I didn’t think I was going to win, but I saw her next to me and I just really wanted it so I tried my hardest,” commented Maskill,

“For the rest of this meet I’ll just try my hardest and see what happens – I just want to do well, aim for a couple PB’s if I can and hopefully a few more medals.”

A further British podium double came from debutants Ela Letton-Jones and Astrid Carrol in the Women’s S12 100m Backstroke, with the pair both setting lifetime bests on the world stage to take silver and bronze.

Asked about at what point she realised she was a world bronze medallist, Carroll commented:

“Probably when I got out [of the pool], I had no idea because it was all so crazy, but it was nice to have Ela to go through this experience together”

Letton-Jones adding:

“It’s definitely a surreal feeling - I still really can’t believe it to be honest but I’m so happy that we got to share the podium together.”

Elsewhere on the opening night, Ellie Challis powered to the 12th world championship medal of her career to date with silver in the Women's SB2 50m Breaststroke, while 14-year-old Iona Winnifrith impressively moved up through the field in the breaststroke leg of the Women's SM7 200m Individual Medley contest to land herself a brilliant bronze – her maiden world championship medal.

Earlier in the day Dylan Broom made his world championships debut, just missing out on progressing from the Men’s S14 200m Freestyle heats in ninth overall.

Live and extended results of the Singapore 2025 World Para Swimming Championships can be found at www.paralympic.org/swimming/live-results, with live streaming of sessions on the Paralympics YouTube Channel.