World Championships, Day 6 Finals: Duncan Scott Anchors Great Britain to Repeat World Title in 800 Free Relay
Great Britain remains the world’s dominant power in the men’s 800 freestyle relay. One year after the team captured a second consecutive Olympic gold, the Brits fought off challenges from the United States, Australia and China to win the world title by more than a second. And just like last year in Paris, Duncan Scott provided the decisive anchor leg.
Scott entered the water six tenths behind the American team that had stormed into the lead behind a 1:43.45 third split from Luke Hobson. But Hobson quickly made up the gap on U.S. anchor Rex Maurer, and the race was effectively over as the fourth swimmers pushed off the first turn. Scott previously anchored the gold-medal-winning teams in Tokyo and Paris with 1:43 splits, and he countered Hobson’s leg with a sizzling one of his own, splitting 1:43.82.
“Every time I’ve done it, they always put me in a great position,” Scott said. “We’ve got that trust element as well with how each of us performs in the race. We’re now pretty comfortable at this sort of arena. But yeah, that was a real battle in there. Some great teams. And I thought we performed really well.”
Matt Richards, the world champion in the 200 free in 2023, rebounded from missing the final in that event to lead off the relay in 1:45.37, and veteran James Guy followed that up with a 1:45.65 split. Scott, Richards and Guy have been part of the British squads in both Olympic-winning efforts, but the fourth swimmer from those groups, Tom Dean, has struggled in 2025. No worries for the Brits, as they could insert Jack McMillan and get a 1:45.65 third leg, putting the team close enough to give Scott a chance down the stretch.
Britain’s final time was 6:59.84, with the team breaking 7:00 for the fourth time in the past five years. The group ended up a second ahead of silver-medal-winning China while Australia secured bronze, knocking the Americans off the podium altogether.
“It means the world to us,” Richards said. “That’s the third year in a row, Worlds 2023, Olympics last year, and then Worlds again this year where we’ve managed to win this race every time, which is a huge achievement. It’s something that you can almost take for granted at times, the dominance we’ve had in that event.
“I think every single time it gets harder and harder to try and defend that title, so I think we’ve all got to be so proud of ourselves, all four of us and the boys this morning, putting in those performances and getting ourselves on the top of that podium again. The best way to describe it is that we’re all buzzing.”
Scott added, “I said to the boys, ‘We can’t think this is normal, this is pretty special.’ And we can’t take it for granted at all because that was so hard-fought, and everyone’s looking at us now and challenging us. Everyone’s moved across to try and get on us. No matter what way we swim out there, they are looking to try and get at us. Everyone’s put a big target on our backs now, so every single win is really special.
China inserted Pan Zhanle onto its squad despite Pan’s struggles in individual events, missing the final of the 100 free (in which he is the world-record holder) and the semifinals of the 200-meter race. But the team’s faith in Pan paid off a he split 1:44.41 on the second leg, and Zhang Zhanshuo, came home in 1:44.20 to move from fourth into second place.
Ji Xinjie and Wang Shun swam first and third, respectively, for China, and the team clocked 7:00.91, lowering their previous Asian record of 7:01.84 set last year. “In a relay, the result is the combined effort of everyone involved,” Zhang said. “I merely did my part to swim my best. I didn’t want to let my teammates down.”
Australia’s Flynn Southam and Charlie Hawke provided a solid start before Kai Taylor (1:44.64) and Max Giuliani (1:44.92) came through for a final time of 7:00.98.
The U.S. ended up at 7:01.27, a quarter-second behind the Aussies. Despite Hobson’s sensational split on the third leg, which was the quickest in the entire race, the remaining American swimmers swam much slower than their their best times. Henry McFadden, Gabriel Jett and Rex Maurer filled out the American contingent that finished in 7:01.24.
Coming out of U.S. Nationals in early June, the U.S. team looked poised to challenge the world record in this relay as Hobson broke 1:44 for the first time while Jett swam 1:44.70 and both Maurer and McFadden clocked 1:45-low performances. Adding up those four flat-start performances produced a composite time of 6:58.78, more than a second quicker than the British winning time here.
Hobson has overcome the affects of the stomach illness that has severely affected the U.S. performance in Singapore, highlighted by his individual silver in the 200 free. But his three teammates on this squad, all competing in a World Championships final for the first time, averaged about one second behind their personal-best performances, leading to the disappointing result. The Americans had not missed the Worlds podium in this event since 1998, although they have a more recent disappointment when placing fourth at the Tokyo Olympics.
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