Maskill world record caps flying finale to Singapore 2025

After seven incredible days of competition in Singapore, the Great Britain team finish fifth on the final medal table at the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships having secured 40 medals - 15 gold, 14 silver and 11 bronze.

Four of those medals were delivered from the OCBC Aquatic Centre competition pool in the curtain call finals session as Poppy Maskill, Olivia Newman-Baronius and Will Ellard all powered 100m butterfly success following Brock Whiston’s breaststroke silver.

The S14 100m Butterfly races indeed served up a stunning close to the individual racing in Singapore, with Maskill and Newman-Baronius duelling it out at the front of the women’s medal contest.

Aiming to follow up her 2024 Paralympic title with world championship gold, Maskill was out to the 50m mark in 29 seconds flat, and staying under her own world record pace the Manchester Performance Centre swimmer stopped the clock on 1:02.58 – bettering Newman-Baronius to the gold by less than two tenths of a second. Fellow British teammate, Louise Fiddes, placing fourth on this occasion.

“I’m really happy with that – I didn’t expect to get a PB so to get the world record again was amazing and just an unreal feeling,” said Maskill.

“I think I’ve done a good job this week being the first year [in the cycle] back after Paris. I’ll go back and look at all the little things I can improve with my coach Nick [Thompson] and can hopefully come back for more.”

The subsequent men’s race provided a blanket finish as Ellard touched out the current world record holder, Gabriel Bandiera (BRA), in a championship record time of 54.32.

Charging out of the blocks Ellard had almost half a second on his Brazilian rival at the turn, but approaching the final stroke it was going to be all about timing the finish – with Ellard getting it spot on to triumph in the latest of many great head-to-heads the pair have shared in recent years.

“That wasn’t far off the world record! Obviously, it’s the end of the week and I’m quite tired but I just made sure I put my head down – I’ve got three weeks off after this before the next block [of training] so I wanted to give it a crack,” said Ellard.

“I think there is more to come [for me] in that event in the future.”

Brock Whiston closed her account with a fourth medal in Singapore – delivering a confident swim in the Women’s SB8 100m Breaststroke to seal a silver medal at the start of Saturday’s finals session.

Getting away well, Whiston put in a valiant chase of the reigning Paralympic champion, Anastasiy Dmytriv Dmytriv (ESP). However, just as Whiston began to close down the gap over the return length the Spaniard kicked on again, holding her at bay in what was a repeat of their positions 12 months ago in Paris.

Meanwhile, Kieran Williams, Bruce Dee, Alice Tai and Faye Rogers stepped out for the final action of these championships in the Mixed 34pts 4x100m Freestyle relay.

From an outside lane the quartet put in an admirable effort as a team to take fourth overall on the world stage, combining to post a time just a second shy of the current British record mark.

Elsewhere, the S6 50m Butterfly saw Grace Harvey and Dee round out their individual programmes of these championships – Harvey placing seventh in the Women’s event, while Dee finished eighth in the Men’s contest ahead of his relay contribution at the close of the night.

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 playback of sessions on the Paralympics YouTube Channel.