Swimming at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 100 metre freestyle
The men's 100 metre freestyle competition of the swimming events at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships was held on 5 August with the heats and the semifinals and 6 August with the final.
Asian Record holder Ning Zetao became the first Chinese male ever to win the 100 meter freestyle at the World Championships. Coming from second at the halfway turn, Ning beat Australian favorite Cameron McEvoy to win his first ever World Championship medal in 47.84. McEvoy finished second in a time of 47.95, while Argentina's Federico Grabich emerged as a serious sprint freestyle threat, winning the bronze and his nation's first ever World Championship medal in 48.12.
After leading at the 50 meter mark, Canada's Santo Condorelli faded to fourth in 48.19, while Brazil's Marcelo Chierighini finished fifth in 48.28, beating out hometown favorite Alexander Sukhorukov by a hundredth of a second. Plagued by a shoulder injury, defending Olympic Champion Nathan Adrian tied for seventh with Belgium's Pieter Timmers.
After sustaining a shoulder injury, Australia's James Magnussen was forced to withdraw from the event, leaving him unable to defend his world title. Russia's Vladimir Morozov, who had the top time in the world coming into the event, left the blocks early in the semifinals, therefore ending his hope of being the first Russian since Alexander Popov to win the coveted 100 meter freestyle at the World Championships.
Records
Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.Results
Heats
The heats were held at 09:43.| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 11 | 4 | Ning Zetao | 48.11 | Q | |
| 2 | 12 | 4 | Cameron McEvoy | 48.33 | Q | |
| 3 | 10 | 4 | Vladimir Morozov | 48.46 | Q | |
| 4 | 12 | 9 | Federico Grabich | 48.48 | Q | |
| 5 | 12 | 2 | Jérémy Stravius | 48.52 | Q | |
| 6 | 10 | 2 | Pieter Timmers | 48.58 | Q | |
| 7 | 10 | 5 | Sebastiaan Verschuren | 48.61 | Q | |
| 7 | 12 | 5 | Nathan Adrian | 48.61 | Q | |
| 9 | 11 | 3 | Alexandr Sukhorukov | 48.64 | Q | |
| 10 | 10 | 3 | Fabien Gilot | 48.73 | Q | |
| 11 | 11 | 1 | Santo Condorelli | 48.77 | Q | |
| 12 | 10 | 7 | Matheus Santana | 48.81 | Q | |
| 13 | 11 | 5 | Marco Orsi | 48.82 | Q | |
| 14 | 12 | 7 | Shinri Shioura | 48.84 | Q | |
| 15 | 11 | 0 | Marcelo Chierighini | 48.92 | Q | |
| 16 | 12 | 0 | Paweł Korzeniowski | 48.93 | Q | |
| 17 | 12 | 6 | Luca Dotto | 49.01 | ||
| 18 | 11 | 2 | Tommaso D'Orsogna | 49.04 | ||
| 19 | 11 | 6 | Katsumi Nakamura | 49.07 | ||
| 20 | 10 | 1 | Kristian Gkolomeev | 49.12 | ||
| 20 | 10 | 8 | Jimmy Feigen | 49.12 | ||
| 22 | 9 | 5 | Jasper Aerents | 49.24 | ||
| 23 | 11 | 7 | Ben Proud | 49.35 | ||
| 24 | 10 | 9 | Dylan Carter | 49.40 | ||
| 25 | 10 | 0 | Cristian Quintero | 49.46 | ||
| 26 | 11 | 9 | Odysseus Meladinis | 49.47 | ||
| 27 | 8 | 3 | Mindaugas Sadauskas | 49.49 | ||
| 28 | 9 | 4 | Yu Hexin | 49.50 | ||
| 29 | 9 | 6 | Yuri Kisil | 49.56 | ||
| 29 | 11 | 8 | Marius Radu | 49.56 | ||
| 31 | 12 | 8 | Yauhen Tsurkin | 49.67 | ||
| 32 | 12 | 1 | Calum Jarvis | 49.68 | ||
| 33 | 9 | 2 | Krisztián Takács | 49.76 | ||
| 34 | 8 | 5 | Christoffer Carlsen | 49.78 | ||
| 35 | 8 | 2 | Kemal Arda Gürdal | 49.80 | ||
| 36 | 9 | 7 | Andriy Hovorov | 49.81 | ||
| 37 | 8 | 4 | Geoffrey Cheah | 49.96 | ||
| 38 | 8 | 0 | David Gamburg | 49.98 | ||
| 39 | 8 | 1 | Quah Zheng Wen | 49.99 | ||
| 40 | 8 | 8 | Martin Verner | 50.01 | ||
| 41 | 9 | 3 | Velimir Stjepanović | 50.07 | ||
| 42 | 9 | 9 | Renzo Tjon A Joe | 50.12 | ||
| 43 | 8 | 7 | Ben Hockin | 50.19 | ||
| 44 | 9 | 1 | Arseni Kukharau | 50.21 | ||
| 45 | 7 | 5 | Alexandre Haldemann | 50.28 | ||
| 46 | 7 | 7 | Sidni Hoxha | 50.45 | ||
| 47 | 6 | 6 | Park Seon-kwan | 50.53 | ||
| 48 | 8 | 9 | Ari-Pekka Liukkonen | 50.64 | ||
| 49 | 7 | 1 | Mario Todorović | 50.66 | ||
| 50 | 9 | 8 | Daniel Ramírez | 50.70 | ||
| 51 | 7 | 8 | Daniil Tulupov | 50.71 | ||
| 52 | 7 | 3 | Julien Henx | 50.77 | ||
| 53 | 7 | 4 | Ali Khalafalla | 50.84 | ||
| 54 | 7 | 9 | Matthew Abeysinghe | FINA Independent Athletes | 50.93 | |
| 55 | 7 | 2 | Nicholas Magana | 50.99 | ||
| 56 | 6 | 2 | Aleksandar Nikolov | 51.01 | ||
| 57 | 7 | 6 | Christian Scherübl | 51.02 | ||
| 58 | 9 | 0 | Lorenzo Loria | 51.18 | ||
| 59 | 6 | 4 | Luis Flores | 51.21 | ||
| 59 | 6 | 5 | Hoàng Quý Phước | 51.21 | ||
| 61 | 6 | 8 | Sean Gunn | 51.30 | ||
| 62 | 6 | 7 | Lim Ching Hwang | 51.31 | ||
| 63 | 5 | 5 | Andrew Chetcuti | 51.35 | ||
| 64 | 6 | 9 | Sam Seghers | 51.35 | ||
| 65 | 5 | 7 | Jordan Augier | 51.39 | ||
| 66 | 6 | 3 | Aaron D'Souza | 51.41 | ||
| 67 | 5 | 6 | Jagger Stephens | 51.50 | ||
| 68 | 6 | 1 | Mikel Schreuders | 51.77 | ||
| 69 | 5 | 2 | Allan Gutiérrez | 51.83 | ||
| 70 | 6 | 0 | Stanislav Karnaukhov | 51.96 | ||
| 71 | 5 | 1 | Mario Montoya | 52.06 | ||
| 72 | 7 | 0 | Janis Saltans | 52.07 | ||
| 73 | 4 | 1 | Igor Mogne | 52.09 | ||
| 74 | 4 | 5 | Ifa Paea | 52.21 | ||
| 75 | 5 | 3 | Oliver Elliot | 52.50 | ||
| 76 | 4 | 6 | Winter Heaven | 52.77 | ||
| 77 | 5 | 0 | Miguel Mena | 52.78 | ||
| 78 | 5 | 4 | Sidrell Williams | 52.81 | ||
| 79 | 3 | 3 | Mohammad Rahman | 52.89 | ||
| 80 | 5 | 8 | Jhonny Pérez | 53.16 | ||
| 81 | 5 | 9 | Abdoul Niane | 53.33 | ||
| 82 | 4 | 4 | Christian Selby | 53.48 | ||
| 83 | 3 | 5 | Mohammed Bedour | 53.53 | ||
| 84 | 3 | 4 | Meli Malani | 53.68 | ||
| 85 | 4 | 3 | Issa Mohamed | 54.02 | ||
| 86 | 4 | 9 | Alexander Skinner | 54.05 | ||
| 87 | 4 | 2 | Adel El-Fakir | 54.18 | ||
| 88 | 3 | 6 | Valentin Gorshkov | 54.28 | ||
| 89 | 4 | 7 | Boško Radulović | 54.53 | ||
| 90 | 3 | 2 | Andre van der Merwe | 54.69 | ||
| 91 | 3 | 1 | Christian Nikles | 54.75 | ||
| 92 | 4 | 0 | Vladimir Mamikonyan | 55.12 | ||
| 93 | 4 | 8 | Farhan Saleh | 55.18 | ||
| 94 | 3 | 7 | Bakr Al-Dulaimi | 55.22 | ||
| 95 | 11 | 4 | Aza Xeid | 55.67 | ||
| 96 | 3 | 0 | Stefano Mitchell | 56.34 | ||
| 97 | 2 | 4 | Hannibal Gaskin | 56.85 | ||
| 98 | 3 | 9 | Abeiku Jackson | 56.94 | ||
| 99 | 2 | 5 | Giordan Harris | 57.75 | ||
| 100 | 2 | 3 | Sirish Gurung | 58.22 | ||
| 100 | 2 | 6 | Ammaar Ghadiyali | 58.22 | ||
| 102 | 1 | 9 | Rony Bakale | 58.64 | ||
| 103 | 2 | 1 | Mamadou Soumaré | 59.33 | ||
| 104 | 2 | 0 | Shawn Dingilius-Wallace | 59.46 | ||
| 105 | 2 | 7 | Alois Dansou | 59.58 | ||
| 106 | 1 | 3 | Mark Hoare | 59.62 | ||
| 107 | 2 | 2 | Belly-Cresus Ganira | 59.74 | ||
| 108 | 2 | 9 | Takumi Sugie | |||
| 109 | 1 | 1 | Meriton Veliu | |||
| 110 | 1 | 5 | Mohamed Adnan | |||
| 111 | 1 | 6 | Kaleo Kihleng | |||
| 112 | 1 | 2 | Soulasen Phommasen | |||
| 113 | 2 | 8 | Athoumane Solihi | |||
| 114 | 1 | 7 | Amadou Camara | |||
| 115 | 1 | 4 | Robel Habte | |||
| 1 | 8 | Fenel Lamour | ||||
| 8 | 6 | Pjotr Degtjarjov | ||||
| 10 | 6 | Konrad Czerniak | ||||
| 12 | 3 | Paul Biedermann |
Semifinals
The semifinals were held at 17:32.Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
The final was held at 18:05.| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 5 | Ning Zetao | 47.84 | |||
| 4 | Cameron McEvoy | 47.95 | |||
| 3 | Federico Grabich | 48.12 | |||
| 4 | 8 | Santo Condorelli | 48.19 | ||
| 5 | 7 | Marcelo Chierighini | 48.27 | ||
| 6 | 1 | Alexandr Sukhorukov | 48.28 | ||
| 7 | 2 | Nathan Adrian | 48.31 | ||
| 7 | 6 | Pieter Timmers | 48.31 |