He is unstoppable. After winning the 100m medley then the 200m medley with a world record to boot, on Friday, Léon Marchand won the 400m medley, coming close to his own French record, during the third and final step of the Short Course World Cup, in Singapore, Saturday November 2. To conclude, he took a very good second place in the 200m freestyle final behind Duncan Scott, who became the fourth man to go under the 1'40″ mark (1'39″83).
Author of the national record (3’58″30) during his last outing over the distance, on October 26, for the second stage of the World Cup in Incheon (South Korea), Léon Marchand this time set a time of 3'58'45. In the lead from the first butterfly length, he didn't let anyone compete with him in the pool, even if he faltered in the second part of the race, to finish in front of the Italian Alberto Razzetti (4'00″59) and the American Trenton Julian (4'04″46).
400m medley (M): Léon Marchand wins easily
Léon Marchand won the 400m medley in 3:58.45, more than two seconds ahead of Italian Alberto Razzetti (4:00.59). The Frenchman failed just 15 hundredths short of his own French record.
“I'm a little tired but I'm happy with the time”reacted the Frenchman at the end of his race at the microphone of the organization. It must be said that the Toulouse swimmer had, in his arms and legs, a series of the 200m freestyle swam a little earlier.
Over this distance, the 22-year-old Habs also delivered an excellent performance in the final. After a cautious start, the student of Nicolas Castel and Bob Bowman gradually fell behind to take second place in the race, behind the Briton Duncan Scott (1'39″83), and beat his personal best in 1'40 ''91. The Chinese Pan Zhanle, Olympic champion and world record holder in the 100m freestyle in Paris, took third place (1'41″59).
Léon Marchand, who has made the 200m freestyle one of his goals for the future, is therefore a little over a second behind the French record held by Yannick Agnel since 2012 (1'39″70).
200m freestyle (M): Léon Marchand ranks 2nd in a crazy race
Thanks to his fantastic swims, Léon Marchand took second place in the 200m freestyle in 1:40.91. The Frenchman beats his own record and ranks behind Duncan Scott. With a time of 1:39.83, the Briton is the 4th swimmer in history to go under 1:40.00.
As during the first two stages of the World Cup, the Toulousain, quadruple gold medalist at the Paris Olympic Games, thus signs a hat-trick in three days. A good omen before the cshort course world championships, which will take place from December 10 to 15, in Budapest (Hungary).
