Léon Marchand won the 400-yard medley last night at the NCAA Finals in Minneapolis. He then followed up with the fastest relay in history in breaststroke, in the 4×100 yards medley.
Nothing stops him. After his victory doubled by an unofficial world record on the lower distance (1’36”34 on 200y medley), the Toulousain won the title last night at the NCAA finals in Minneapolis in 3’28”82 .
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VIDEO. Impressive Leon Marchand! The Toulouse swimmer (again) breaks a university record in the United States
A meteoric rise for the French swimmer who first broke the all-time record in 3’31”84 before improving it three weeks ago in 3’31”57.
It is with this margin that Léon Marchand beat Hugo Gonzalez, the outgoing NCAA champion, 2nd in 3’34”66 and the runner-up to his world titles last summer in the 200m medley and 400m medley Carson Foster credited with 3’36”02.
“I didn’t believe what I saw!”
In an interview after the race, the Toulouse swimmer couldn’t believe it: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This morning (Friday), it was quite difficult. I had to get up early when I I hadn’t slept well. I must have still been too excited for the 200 y 4 medley.” Despite this, Léon Marchand completed his series with the best time (3’34”47) to obtain line 4 in the final. He was ready to dive back in after a nap. “I stayed focused on myself and my lane, he says. But it was so painful at the end!”
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Swimming: Léon Marchand breaks two records and still impresses the United States!
But the Frenchman didn’t stop there, he took advantage of the 4×100 y 4 strokes with his University of Arizona States to complete the fastest breaststroke relay in history with a record time of 49”23. He beat Kevin Cordes and his 49”56 in 2013.
He thus helps the Sun Devils, who before the last day, temporarily occupy 2nd place, 13 points behind the Californians of Berkeley. They can therefore always hope for a historic victory. This is all the more possible because there is still one individual race for Léon Marchand, namely the 200-yard breaststroke, a race he had already won last year.
