Pooling its younger resources

Pan will face a stiff challenge from Romanian superstar David Popovici, who just posted the best result so far this year with a 46.71s win, powered by an all-time fastest back-half split of 23.98s, at the U23 European championships last month. The two speedsters will first go head-to-head in the 200m final on Tuesday, before their mouthwatering clash in the 100m sprint on Thursday.

"It will be just my fourth time competing at the worlds after all. I am still in the learning process and will swim faster," said Pan, who, since September 2023, has cracked the 47-second barrier five times in official races, the most in the world.

Another key member of the roster is Qin Haiyang, a breaststroke specialist who achieved an unprecedented triple at the worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2023 — winning gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m.

The current 200m world record-holder (2:05.48) looks set to come back stronger from his disappointing medal-less Olympics outing in Paris after clocking this year's world-best 58.61s in 100m at the national trials in May, and the third-ranked 200m result (2:07.44) in the Chinese spring championships in March.

With 50m and 100m world record-holder Adam Peaty of Britain having decided to skip the 2025 season, Qin has emerged as the man to beat in Singapore across all three breaststroke events.