Two hundred meters breaststroke on Sunday, 200m freestyle on Monday, 200m butterfly on Tuesday, 200m medley on Wednesday and therefore, now, 400m medley. Attraction of the French Championships, Léon Marchand obtained, Thursday, June 15, in Rennes, his fifth title of champion of France in as many days of competition.
The 21-year-old Toulousain easily won in 4 minutes, 10 seconds and 57 hundredths, a time that allows him to win a new ticket for the Worlds, from July 23 to 30 in Fukuoka, Japan. His main goal this year. However, this performance remains quite far from his personal best in the 400m medley, achieved at the world championships in Budapest in 2022 (4 min 04 s 28).
A hellish time for Florent Manaudou
“I’m a little disappointed with the final time, I wanted to go below 4:10. I feel that I am not in my best shape at the moment, analyzed Léon Marchand just after his race at the microphone of BeIN Sports. I qualified for the Worlds in all my races, that’s the most important thing. »
The contract is in any case perfectly fulfilled for the phenomenon of French swimming. After his race, the student of Bob Bowmann, former coach of star Michael Phelps, had not yet decided whether he will swim the 100m butterfly on Friday.
The performance of the day is to the credit of Florent Manaudou. Crowned in the 50m freestyle in the evening (21 min 62 s), the 2012 Olympic champion had signed the best world performance of the year, in the series, earlier in the day. Under the eyes of his sister, Laure, he won in 21 min 56 s. “If, a few days ago, someone had told me that I was going to swim this fast, I would have signed straight! “, said, all smiles, Florent Manaudou after his title.