World University Games, Day 2 Finals: Leah Shackley, Pieter Coetze Crush Games Records in Backstroke
Five sets of medals were awarded during the second finals session of the World University Games, beginning with a dominant second-half effort from American Leah Hayes in the women’s 400 IM. Italy’s Simone Stefani and the Czech Republic’s Daryna Nabojcenko captured gold in their respective 50 butterfly finals, before Kyrgyzstan’s Denis Petrashov won the men’s 100 breaststroke and American Leah Shackley dominated the women’s 200 backstroke in Games-record time.
There were two performances that moved swimmers into the all-time top-15 in their respective events: Shackley in the 200 back and South Africa’s Pieter Coetze in the men’s 100 back semifinals.
Men’s 200 Freestyle Semifinals
American swimmers posted the top-two times in the semifinal round. Jake Mitchell and Baylor Nelson could not keep up with their country’s numerous 1:45 performances at U.S. Nationals, but they were the class of the field here. Mitchell beat the field in the first semifinal by almost a half-second, clocking 1:46.45, and Nelson came in at 1:46.64 to top the second heat. Both men have both represented the U.S. in the 800 freestyle relay at the 2023 World Championships, earning a silver medal for their efforts.
Neutral athlete Nikolai Kolesnikov, the winner in the 400 free Thursday, posted the third-best time at 1:46.72, with Brazil’s Kaique Alves also under 1:47 (1:46.91). The rest of the field will include Italy’s Giovanni Caserta (1:47.63), Japan’s Konosuke Yanagimoto (1:47.80), Australia’s Marcus Da Silva (1:47.84) and France’s Pierre Largeron (1:48.04).
Women’s 100 Freestyle Semifinals
France’s Lison Nowaczyk came over the top of two American rivals to take first in the 100 free semis. Nowaczyk came into the wall in 54.42, a tenth clear of the 54.53 posted by U.S. standout Maxine Parker. Parker still has the meet’s top time with the 54.28 she posted leading off the Americans’ gold-medal-winning 400 free relay Thursday.
Cyprus’ Kalia Antonio had the third-best time at 54.69, followed by South Africa’s Olivia Nel (54.74) and China’s Shuhan Liu (54.75). Julia Dennis, who had the fastest opening split in the semifinal round, faded but held on to place sixth in 54.89. China’s Ai Yanhan, who swam the fastest split overall in the 400 free relay, was seventh in 54.91, while neutral swimmer Iana Shakirova edged out France’s Lucile Tessariol for the last spot in the final, 55.06 to 55.07.
Women’s 400 IM Final
The first women’s individual gold medal of the meet went to American Leah Hayes, who used her standout breaststroke leg to open up an advantage on the field before winning gold by almost four seconds. As per her usual standard, Hayes was behind through the butterfly and backstroke legs, turning with a deficit of almost two seconds at the halfway point as Japan’s Ayami Suzuki and American Teagan O’Dell led the race.
But a split of 1:08.57 on breaststroke completely changed the complexion of the field, and Hayes was exactly three seconds clear of the field as she turned for home. She would extend the lead on the way to a final time of 4:36.04. That time moved Hayes to No. 7 in the world this year. At U.S. Nationals, Hayes was caught by University of Virginia teammate Katie Grimes on the closing freestyle leg, but she swam two seconds quicker here, far surpassing her 4:38.46 from last month as well as Grimes’ mark of 4:37.22.
O’Dell claimed silver in 4:39.96, blitzing ahead of Suzuki on the final length with a 30.81 split. Suzuki came in at 4:40.62 for bronze. The rest of the field was well behind, with Japan’s Rio Sato the best of the rest at 4:44.05.
Men’s 50 Butterfly Final
Italy’s Simone Stefani came out on top in the 50 fly final, getting to the wall five hundredths ahead of Uzbekistan’s Eldorbek Usmonov. Stefani came in for gold at 23.28, with Usmonov at 23.33. The event was a big one for Italy, with Lorenzo Gargani touching at 23.42 for bronze. The Italian men have now won two medals after a pair of narrow misses in both finals Thursday, with Davide Marchello and the 400 free relay both taking fourth.
Women’s 50 Butterfly Final
Considering the exceedingly close margins expected in a 50-meter event, Darya Nabojcenko put together a dominant victory. The swimmer from the Czech Republic secured gold in the women’s 50 fly in 26.09, beating the field by 0.18.
Australia won a medal for the first time this meet as Josephine Crimmins took silver in 26.27, while Italy’s Viola Scotto Di Carlo was three hundredths back for bronze (26.30), her second medal after helping Italy to bronze in the 400 free relay Thursday. American swimmers Caroline Larsen (26.39) and Ella Welch (26.48) just missed out on the podium.
Men’s 100 Backstroke Semifinals
Pieter Coetze, a 21-year-old from South Africa, is in the midst of a breakthrough performance at the World University Games. After a sub-48 leadoff performance in the 400 free relay Thursday, Coetze has blasted his best time in the 100 backstroke by four tenths and broke the Games record. He won the second semifinal in 52.18, moving to No. 15 all-time in the event.
Coetze’s time moved him to fourth in the world this year. Only Russian swimmers Kliment Kolesnikov and Miron Lifintsev and Great Britain’s Oliver Morgan have been quicker, and he will head to the World Championships in Singapore positioned to contend for multiple medals in the backstroke events.
Also posting a strong performance was Will Modglin of the United States. He broke 53 for the first time, coming in at 52.75 for second in the semifinal round and No. 10 in the world rankings. Modglin was fifth in the 100 back at U.S. Nationals with a time of 53.83, but this huge improvement makes him the top American thus far in 2025.
Daniel Diehl, the other American representative, placed third in the semis at 53.48, followed by the French duo of Mathys Chouchaoui (53.70) and Jules Andre (53.95). The final will also include neutral athlete Aleksei Tkachev (54.34), Italy’s Pietro Ubertalli (54.48) and Japan’s Yuga Nishimura (54.57).
Women’s 50 Breaststroke Semifinals
Swimmers hailing from the University of Virginia have been the standouts for the U.S. women’s team thus far at the Games. Maxine Parker paced the winning 400 free relay and qualified second for the 100 free final while Leah Hayes captured 400 IM gold. Now, Emma Weber has posted the top time in the 50 breast semifinals.
Weber was a Paris Olympian, and she missed out on a World Championships spot last month after losing a 50 breast swim-off at Nationals. Here, she went 30.53 to beat out Poland’s Barbara Mazurkiewicz (30.63) and South Africa’s Lara Van Niekerk (30.64) for the top seed in the final. The other American, Piper Enge, was fourth in 31.01, followed by South Africa’s Simone Moll (31.21), neutral athlete Iana Shakirova (31.23) and Canada’s Shona Branton (31.25).
A swim-off will be needed to determine the last spot in the final after Italy’s Chiara Della Corte and Great Britain’s Anna Morgan each clocked 31.45, tied for the eighth-best mark.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke Final
He qualified only fifth for the 100 breaststroke final, but Denis Petrashov was the most experienced swimmer in the field. The 25-year-old from Kyrgyzstan then came through from lane two, going out fast and winning gold by more than one-third of a second. Petrashov touched in 59.32, just off his season-best of 59.23 that ranks him No. 11 in the world this year.
Poland’s Dawid Wiekiera touched second in 59.66 while bronze went to the United States’ Ben Delmar in 59.80. Also under 1:00 was Delmar’s American teammate Nate Germonprez, who placed fourth in 59.95.
Women’s 200 Backstroke Final
Leah Shackley had previously captured gold medals at the World Junior Championships and Junior Pan Pacific Championships, but a win in the 200 backstroke at the World University Games marked the most impressive accomplishment of her career. That’s because Shackley utterly dominated the field while showing that she is on the verge of contending with the best in the world in the event.
Shackley was just behind Kennedy Noble, her teammate at NC State, after 50 meters, but the race was never close after that as Shackley pulled away to win by 1.83 seconds. Shackley’s time was 2:05.99, vaulting her to No. 4 in the world rankings behind Australia’s Kaylee McKeown and fellow Americans Claire Curzan and Regan Smith. In Thursday’s semifinals, Shackley beat the World University Games record by almost a second, and she cut another massive chunk off the mark here.
In her winning effort, Shackley was only 0.15 slower than Smith went to finish second at U.S. Nationals last month while beating her own third-place time from the meet by more than a half-second. The 19-year-old has incinerated her previous best time this season, having topped out at 2:08.19 last year, and she is now tied with Rio Olympic champion Maya DiRado for No. 13 all-time in the event.
Silver went to Noble in 2:07.82, marking the second 1-2 finish of the day for the American women. South Korea’s Eunji Lee placed third in 2:08.29, just ahead of Portugal’s Camila Rodrigues Rebelo (2:08.96).
Men’s 200 IM Semifinals
To wrap up the competition day, American swimmers recorded the top-two times in the 200 IM semifinals. Mitchell Schott was the only man to break 1:59, coming to the wall in 1:58.95. Schott was in third place in his semifinal heat at the 150-meter mark covering the freestyle leg in 28.08, a full second quicker than anyone else in the field. Meanwhile, Owen McDonald won the first semifinal in 1:59.28. Both men were part of the gold-medal-winning 400 free relay Thursday.
The next-best times belonged to a pair of Japanese swimmers, Takumi Mori (1:59.49) and Yuta Watanabe (1:59.60). Also making the final were Israel’s Eitan Ben Shitrit (1:59.97), Italy’s Simone Spediacci (2:00.21), Australia’s Gabriel Gorgas (2:00.38) and Spain’s Diego Mira Albaladejo (2:00.47).
