Media Release: Léo Lebot Lights Up Singapore (2025 World Aquatic Championships)

News Brief:

Léo Lebot has lit up the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, with a blistering 29.28 in the Men’s 50m Butterfly on the opening day of competition. It eclipsed the previous National Record of 30.07, set by Johnathan Silas at the 2024 Oceania Championships. It was also more than two seconds faster than his own previous personal best time of 31.47 that Léo swam at the 2024 Oceania Championships. Léo finished 4^th in his heat and in 92^nd position overall.

Commenting on his race, Léo Lebot said “I’m really happy with that swim, to do a two-second personal best, you can’t ask for better than that. My aim was to go sub-30 and get that National Record, so I am very happy I was able to achieve both those things. The butterfly is my favourite event, I felt so good in the water, it was just a really fun experience. Nothing beats representing your country, I’m just so proud that I get to be here and put Vanuatu on the world swimming map.”

Vanuatu Head Coach Lachlan Milner added, “Léo got exactly what he deserved. He moved himself to Australia to train and the results are speaking for themselves. Léo had done the work leading into the competition, had the right mindset in preparation, hit his pace in warm-up and was able to copy and paste in the race to get the result we all wanted.”

Léo will now turn his attention to his final event, the Men’s 100m Freestyle on Wednesday. Loane Russet OLY, kicks off her campaign, in the Women’s 100m Freestyle on Thursday.

Léo Lebot

Wednesday 30^th July:

Event: Men’s 100m Freestyle
Heat: 3
Lane: 6
Time: 10:29am (Singapore) and 1:29pm (Vanuatu)

Loane Russet OLY

Thursday 31^st July:

Event: Women’s 100m Freestyle
Heat: 3
Lane: 0
Time: 10:08am (Singapore) and 1:08pm (Vanuatu)

Friday 1^st August:

Event: Women’s 50m Butterfly
Heat: 3
Lane: 2
Time: 11:31am (Singapore) and 2:31pm (Vanuatu)

Information on where to watch can be found here: https://www.worldaquatics.com/news/4299020/where-to-watch-world-aquatics-championships-singapore-2025

The Vanuatu Aquatics Federation (VAF) would like to acknowledge the support of the Vanuatu Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (VASANOC) through Olympic Solidarity funding and World Aquatics through their Support Program, for providing the invaluable funding to attend the World Championships in Singapore.

END