The men's 3 km knockout sprints competition at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held on 19 July 2025 off the coast of Palawan Beach, Sentosa. It was the first time this event was held at the World Championships.
Germany's Florian Wellbrock was the favourite to win the event. He won all three rounds to win gold, while Hungary's Dávid Betlehem won silver and France's Marc-Antoine Olivier won bronze. Wellbrock's win made him the first athlete to win three open water swimming golds at a World Championships. The athletes generally said they enjoyed the new racing format.
Event description The event featured three rounds of swimming in the open water – the heats, semifinal and final. The slower swimmers were eliminated after each round.
The heats consisted of two 1500-metre races, and the top ten finishers of each race qualified for the semifinal. The semifinal consisted of a single 1000-metre race, from which the top ten finishers qualified for the final. The final was a 500-metre sprint which determined the finishing positions. Each round consisted of a single four-corner loop. The loop was sized according to the distance of the round. The event took place off the coast of Palawan Beach, Sentosa.
Background Germany's Florian Wellbrock was the favourite to win the event, having recorded the fastest pool 1500 m time of 2025. Wellbrock was also the winner of the 10 km and 5 km events earlier in the Championships. Hungary's Kristóf Rasovszky, the 10 km Olympic champion, won the event at the European Championships earlier in the year, while Germany's Oliver Klemet and Hungary's Dávid Betlehem had won the event at stops of the 2025 World Cup. Also in contention were France's Logan Fontaine and Marc-Antoine Olivier, and Italy's Matteo Diodato.
This was the first time this event was held at the World Aquatics Championships. The event was first seen at the 2024 World Junior Open Water Championships. It had also taken place at the 2025 European Open Water Championships and at two of the stops of the 2025 Open Water Swimming World Cup.
Qualification Each World Aquatics member federation could enter up to two athletes.
Heats The heats were held on 19 July at 10:00 SGT. Florian Wellbrock was in heat 2, while Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri was in heat 1. Oliver Klemet and Dávid Betlehem, who had both won the event at stops of the 2025 Open Water Swimming World Cup, were in heat 2.
Heat 1 Italy's Matteo Diodato won, while Australia's Thomas Raymond and Paltrinieri finished second and third respectively.
+ Results Rank Swimmer Nationality Time Notes 1 Matteo Diodato 17:00.9 Q 2 Thomas Raymond 17:03.8 Q 3 Gregorio Paltrinieri 17:03.9 Q 4 Martin Straka 17:06.2 Q 5 Ivan Puskovitch 17:08.8 Q 6 Logan Fontaine 17:08.9 Q 7 Eric Brown 17:10.1 Q 8 Lev Cherepanov 17:11.4 Q 9 Christian Schreiber 17:11.5 Q 10 Vladislav Utrobin Neutral Athletes B 11 Joaquín Moreno 17:13.1 12 Park Jae-hun 17:13.9 13 Kaito Tsujimori 17:16.6 14 Matthew Caldwell 17:45.4 15 Su Bo-ling 16 Oh Se-beom 17:48.4 17 Artyom Lukasevits 17:50.0 18 Ilias El Fallaki 17:57.9 19 Louis Clark 17:58.4 20 Galymzhan Balabek 18:01.9 21 Diego Dulieu 18:03.1 22 Atakan Ercan 18:03.2 23 Keith Sin 18:03.8 24 Théo Druenne 18:16.9 25 Luke Tan 18:53.3 Jeison Rojas 27 Chan Tsun Hin 19:34.8 28 Juan Núñez 19:38.5 29 Tristan Nell 20:38.1 30 Tharusha Perera 21:49.9 31 Aryan Joseph 23:33.8 32 Swaleh Talib 24:26.7 Piotr Woźniak Did not start
Heat 2 Betlehem took an early lead, and he and Wellbrock finished in the top two spots with more than a two-second lead ahead of the rest of the swimmers. Australia's Nicholas Sloman finished third, and France's Marc-Antoine Olivier and Klemet also qualified.
+ Results Rank Swimmer Nationality Time Notes 1 Florian Wellbrock 17:00.4 Q 2 Dávid Betlehem 17:01.4 Q 3 Nicholas Sloman 17:03.9 Q 4 Marc-Antoine Olivier 17:05.0 Q5 Kristóf Rasovszky 6 Oliver Klemet 17:05.7 Q 7 Paul Niederberger 17:06.9 Q 8 Athanasios Kynigakis 17:08.2 Q 9 Dylan Gravley 17:08.6 Q 10 Luca Karl 17:08.7 Q 11 Ratthawit Thammananthachote 17:10.1 12 Konstantinos Chourdakis 17:10.3 13 Matheus Melecchi 17:10.7 14 Savelii Luzin Neutral Athletes B 17:11.1 15 Luiz Loureiro 17:13.0 16 Bartosz Kapała 17:14.2 17 Emre Sarp Zeytinoğlu 17:41.5 18 Lan Tianchen 17:47.9 19 Nico Esslinger 17:52.4 20 Connor Buck 17:54.1 21 Tsao Jun-yan 18:13.7 22 Zhang Jinhou 18:13.8 23 Richard Urban 18:15.9 24 Esteban Faure 18:23.3 25 Jakub Gabriel 18:23.8 26 Prashans Hiremagalur 18:40.9 27 Riku Takaki 18:46.6 28 Army Pal 19:42.0 29 Joaquín Estigarribia 20:24.0 Adrian Ywanaga Did not start Jamarr Bruno Rami Rahmouni
Semifinal The semifinal was held at 10:50. Wellbrock led from the beginning to finish first, and Betlehem followed him for second. They were followed by a tight pack of swimmers, and photo analysis was required to determine which of the top seventeen swimmers made it through.
+ Results Rank Swimmer Nationality Time Notes 1 Florian Wellbrock 11:27.2 Q 2 Dávid Betlehem 11:27.8 Q 3 Thomas Raymond 11:28.1 Q 4 Marc-Antoine Olivier 11:29.2 Q 5 Gregorio Paltrinieri 11:30.4 Q 6 Logan Fontaine 11:30.8 Q 7 Ivan Puskovitch 11:31.8 Q 8 Martin Straka 11:31.9 Q 9 Kristóf Rasovszky 11:32.6 Q Nicholas Sloman 11 Eric Brown 11:33.1 12 Luca Karl 11:33.2 13 Paul Niederberger 11:34.1 14 Christian Schreiber 11:34.2 15 Vladislav Utrobin Neutral Athletes B 11:34.3 16 Matteo Diodato 11:34.7 17 Oliver Klemet 11:34.9 18 Athanasios Kynigakis 11:35.8 19 Dylan Gravley 11:37.7 20 Lev Cherepanov 12:00.4
Final The final was held at 11:00. Wellbrock led from the beginning to the end to win with a time of 5:46.0. Betlehem was chasing him for most of the race, and he finished in second with 5:47.7. Olivier finished third with 5:51.1, over seven seconds ahead of Paltrinieri in fourth.
Wellbrock's win, along with his wins in the 5 km and 10 km, meant he had won all the individual open water swimming events at the Championships. He also won every stage of the knockout event, meaning he hadn't yet lost a race. This win also made him the first athlete to win three open water swimming golds at a World Championships.
The athletes generally said they enjoyed the new racing format. Betlehem said he was "very happy" with the format, while Wellbrock said "it was so much fun, especially at the end, when I could just jump in and go all out."
+ Results Rank Swimmer Nationality Time Florian Wellbrock 5:46.0 Dávid Betlehem 5:47.7 Marc-Antoine Olivier 5:51.1 4 Gregorio Paltrinieri 5:58.9 5 Thomas Raymond 5:59.0 6 Kristóf Rasovszky 6:06.0 7 Ivan Puskovitch 6:07.28 Logan Fontaine 9 Martin Straka 6:08.6 10 Nicholas Sloman 6:10.3
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