World Aquatics Championships: Cameroonian swimmers fail to impress in Singapore.

The 2025 World Aquatics Championships took place in the Asian nation of Singapore.

It ran from July 11 to August 3, featuring over two thousand watersport athletes from across the globe.

The event which is the biggest competition in watersports, culminated in China, Australia and the United States of America respectively holding the top three positions on the final classification table. 

Tunisia and South Africa ranked 11th and 15th respectively to finish as Africa’s two finest performers.

Cameroon was represented in the championships by ace swimmer, Charly Ndjoumbe, 2024 Olympic Games debutant, Grace Manuela Nguelo’o, rising youthful sensation, Ceylia Djeutcha and France-based star, Claudio Yelegou.

The entirety of the Cameroonian team was bundled out in the opening round of the swimming events after the swimmers posted abysmal showings across their different events which included the women’s 50meters butterfly series, the women’s 50m freestyle and the men’s 50m backstroke category.

Paris 2024 Olympian stunned in Singapore 

Manuela Nguelo’o entered the Singapore competition hoping to build on the rich experience that she tapped in Paris last year where she was one of Team Cameroon’s two swimmers for the global multi-sports event in France.

The 19-year-old however failed in the mission. She was easily knocked out in the first rounds of the women’s 50m freestyle and women’s 50m butterfly categories.

The youngster was eliminated in the 50m freestyle series after ranking 89th among 105 participants at the end of the opening round. This was after she posted a performance of 31.09 seconds.

The swimmer suffered a similar defeat in the 50m butterfly series. She was knocked out in the opening round after registering a record of 33 seconds to place far below the 16 fastest swimmers who qualified for the semifinals from the first round.

Enter Ceylia Djeutcha

Despite being highly admired as the youngest member of the Cameroonian delegation, Djeutchia was eliminated after struggling in the women’s 50m freestyle and the 50m breaststroke events. 

In the 50m freestyle, the 15-year-old failed to make it beyond the first round after she posted a nightmarishly slow record of over one minute and 12 seconds in the opening round race. The result had the young Cameroonian failing to make the list of 16 swimmers who qualified for the semifinals.

The athlete had a similar challenging run in the 50m breaststroke series. She concluded the series on the 51st position out of 59 swimmers after doing the race in 40.92 seconds. She had placed fifth in heat one where she faced eight other swimmers.

Similar challenges in men’s event 

Charly Ndjoume and Claudio Yelegou were also knocked out easily in the opening stages of the competition. 

Ndjoume placed 103 out of 126 swimmers in the 50m freestyle event and 97th out of 102nd in the 50m butterfly category.

The experienced swimmer registered a performance of 27.80 seconds to resultantly fail to make the bracket as one of the 16 fastest swimmers who booked qualification tickets to the semifinals of the freestyle series.

He faced a similar challenge in the butterfly category after posting a performance of 30.95 seconds, also missing out on a chance to qualify for the semifinals as one of the 16 fastest swimmers.

Yelegou on his side, placed 58th on the 50m backstroke and the 100m freestyle. He managed a record of 32.42 seconds to sit just five spots above the rock-bottom 63-swimmers field where 16 semifinal tickets were up for grabs.

Before falling in the backstroke, the swimmer had earlier fallen in the 100m freestyle. 

He put forward a performance of over one minute and two seconds, far behind France’s Rafael Fente-Damers who registered a tally of 48.33 points to pick the last of 16 semifinal tickets that were available.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3525 of Wednesday August 06, 2025.