Day 5 Finals Wrap World Para Champs

BLOOD, sweat and no fears.

The Dolphins are fast becoming medal heads after Night 5 of the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships delivered a staggering haul of one gold, three bronze and a silver in Singapore.

An emotional Lakeisha Patterson (pictured) opened the night with a gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle S9 and while her nickname is Lucky, the triple Paralympian showed in the pool that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

In a battle between the “veteran” and the rookie, Patterson, 26, leant on her nine years of experience to gain on Croatia’s bolter Emma Mecic,18, and defend her world title by almost two body lengths.

“This is probably the only time I’ve really been that emotional after a race. I mean, I’ve been world champion before, but this time, it’s just so much more special,” Patterson said.

“To come back here post-Paris, doing the fastest times I’ve done in nearly six years … and after really modifying and scaling back my programme in order to make it work for me, just means so much.”

Patterson finished first in 4:39.40, followed by Mecic (4:42.55) and Hungary’s Zsofia Konkoly (4:48.77).

Her gold was quickly followed by another experienced campaigner proving that youth may be the gift of nature but age is the work of art.

A delighted Brenden Hall, 32, at his seventh world champions, claimed his twelfth world championship medal in the men’s 400m freestyle S9, a bronze that he very much considered a dirty gold.

Whilst Simone Barlaam (Italy) and Jacabo Garrido Brun (Spain) battled it out for gold and silver respectively in the final 25m, Hall was in a battle for bronze with France’s Ugo Didier. With his two sons watching on, Hall hit the wall at 4:14.69, ahead of Didier in 4:15.33 and Harrison Vig (4:17.73).

Throw in a bronze from Col Pearse and a silver from Callum Simpson and the stage was set for a big finale.

Pearse had given his mum, cheering in the stands, a late but great birthday present when he claimed bronze in the men’s 100m butterfly S10 and set an Oceania record of 56.56 in the process.

Italian powerhouse Stefano Raimondi (54.88) and Ukraine’s Ihor Nimcheko (54.99) placed first and second respectively. Paris bronze medallist Alex Saffy was just behind fellow Dolphin in fourth.

And just 0.03 of a second separated Simpson from winning his second world-title in 24-hours.

In the men’s 50m freestyle S8, Simpson touched in at 26.21, just behind Ukraine’s Eduard Horodianyn in first (26.18). For Simpson, it marked his fifth Oceania record set this meet, and third consecutive podium after winning gold in the 100m freestyle and bronze in the 400m event.

But then enter Australia’s four-star relay lineup.

St Peters Western’s only para swimmer Tom Gallagher led a quartet of Tim Hodge, Emily Beecroft and Chloe Osborn in the mixed 4x100m medley 34pt relay.

Gallagher (S10) set up a class performance with a 1:00.84 backstroke leg and his speed surprised most who are used to seeing the Paris Paralympic 50m freestyle champion on his front.

“Dean (Boxall) will be the first to tell you I’ve done maybe 50m worth of backstroke training since I’ve started. But I love racing, I love lifting, especially in team events. I train bloody hard, and all I have to do is swim freestyle on my back, so that’s pretty much where I get it from,” Gallagher said.

“I just love lifting for the team, it’s always a privilege and that was a PB for me … maybe I’ll have to start some backstroke training.”

Hodge (SB8) and Beecroft (S9), who swam the breaststroke and butterfly legs respectively, reminisced about the last time they raced the event on the world stage – Paris 2024 – and won gold in a sensational fashion alongside Alexa Leary, Jesse Aungles and heat swimmers Callum Simpson and Keira Stephens.

“Walking out in the heats this morning brought back such good memories of Paris. It’s a brand-new team this year, so we had no real expectations coming tonight, we just wanted to have fun, execute our race plans and I think we did really well. I think the future of this particular race for Australia looks very bright,” Beecroft said.

In a thrilling finish, rising star Chloe Osborn (S7) went up against a closing in Anastasiya Dmytriv from Spain (S9) and Great Britain’s Roan Brennan (S10). Spain touched first in a championship record time of 4:31.50, followed by Great Britain (4:31.65) and Osborn who brought home the bronze (4:32.05).

Find full results here: https://www.paralympic.org/swimming/live-results