The men's 200m free Olympic podium placers David Popovici, Matt Richards and Luke Hobson eased through to the semi-finals with 1:45-point efforts.

Champion at Paris 2024, Popovici clocked 1:45.43 in the last of six line-ups, shadowing Hobson all the way before a slight gear change down the last length, his 26.59 granting him an edge on the American, home in 26.98 for a 1:46.61, which was 0.05sec faster than Richards' lead time in the previous heat.

The second American through, Gabriel Jett, clocked 1:45.91 a touch ahead of Britain's 2015 World champion, James Guy going through n 1:46.19. The man closest to Popovici and Hobson, Japan's Tatsuya Murasa was the last man through inside 1:46, on 1:45.92.

Qualifers in full below...

Ndoye-Brouard Gets Closer...

Camille Lacourt has owned the French 100m backstroke record since he claimed the European title in a then continental mark of 52.11 in 2010.

This morning, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard got closer tan any Frenchman has in the intervening years as he shaved his personal best back to 52.30 at the helm of heats this morning here at the World Championships in Singapore.

Lacourt, in town with the French broadcast crew, will witness what Ndoye-Brouard has to bring in semis this evening, as pressure builds on the 52-second dam.

Kliment Kolesnikov was next through in 52.57, Hungary's Olympic 200m champion Hubert Kós second on 52.60, with Apostolos Christou (GRE), Christian Bacico (ITA), Miron Lifintsev, Pieter Coetze (RSA) and Oliver Morgan (GBR) all on 52-point in heats.

One medal in the bag, Katie Ledecky appears to be among the American swimmers who avoided illness on camp in Thailand.

Yesterday, she added to the heaviest collection of World-Championship honours among women with her first bronze over 400m freestyle.

From our report yesterday:

That outcome marked the first bronze for Ledecky in any World-Championship race, her 27th long-course showcase podium since 2013 topped by 21 golds, five silvers following on. The golds include gold in the 400m in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2022, and silvers in 2019 and 2023. Phenomenal.

This morning she returned to the fray in the 1500m freestyle as reigning Olympic champion and the undefeated queen of 30-length battles since she claimed the first of her five World titles, back in 2013.

Ledecky led the pace this morning with a 15:36.68 ticket to lane 4 for the showdown tomorrow. Two others got inside 16 minutes - and 15:50, indeed, in heats: Australia's Lani Pallister, 15:46.95, and Italy's Simona Quadarella, the 2019 champion when Ledecky withdrew from the race ill, on 15:47.43. Olympic silver medallist for France at a home games last year, Anastasia Kirpichnikova clocked 16:06.97 for seventh place into the final, but the Paris 2024 bronze medalist Isabel Gose, of Germany, missed the cut by 0.22sec in 16:08.41.

Here's the wrap of Day 1:

Singapore Day 1 - Swimming Wrap

Medals table, records set on day 1 and links to SOS coverage, final by final…

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

And here's the Day 2 schedule:

THE QUALIFIERS

Women's 100m Backstroke

From 58.20 to 58.57, the USA vs Kaylee McKeown show started to take shape his morning. All big guns safely through and no sign of illness, as Regan Smith and Katherine Berkoff led the Australian quadruple Olympic backstroke champion through to semis:

Men's 100m backstroke

Women's 100m breaststroke

Mona McSharry, the bronze medallist from Ireland, led the way into semis as the sole sub-1:06 swimmer, her 1:05.99 just 0.02sec ahead of Germany's Anna Elendt, the top eight all inside 1:06.55, the door to semis closed at 1:06.96, a 1:06.99 oozes slow for another swim.

The missed chance of the morning was Britain's Angharad Evans, an Olympic finalist last year but on a learning curve this morning, her stroke too short, the timing off at the turn, the speed around her unfolding on the periphery of her perception, a 1:07 flat no longer good enough to make a top 16 at global level.

Men's 200m freestyle

Women's 1500m freestyle