Frenchman Léon Marchand was crowned world champion in the 200 meter medley on Wednesday June 22 in Budapest, a few days after his first title in the 400 meter medley. With a time of 1 minute 55 seconds and 22 hundredths, he beat the American Carson Foster (1’55″71) and the Japanese Daiya Seto (1’56″22).
For Marchand, the mad harvest of medals continues after gold on Saturday in the 400-metre medley and silver in the 200-metre butterfly on Tuesday. The 20-year-old, who trains with Bob Bowman, former coach of legend Michael Phelps, is now the third French swimmer to have achieved the performance of winning two world titles in the same year after Laure Manaudou in Melbourne (2007) and Florent Manaudou (2015) in Kazan.
Earlier in the day, Frenchman Maxime Grousset won the silver medal in the 100m freestyle, just behind Romanian David Popovici. The latter, only 17, had already been crowned in the 200-meter freestyle on Monday. With a time of 47 seconds 58 hundredths, he is just ahead of Grousset, 23 years old (47’64”), in the absence of the superstar of world swimming, the American Caeleb Dressel, who withdrew from the rest of the competition after withdrawing before the queen distance semi-finals.
At the microphone of France 4, Maxime Grousset, said he was “really happy (…) to have represented France so well. During the race, I felt that we were really all on the same line, I felt that I was going to finish in three, maybe even beat Popovici, but it didn’t come to anything.”
Analia Pigrée wins bronze
During the 50 meters backstroke, the French Analia Pigrée, for her part, won bronze, with a time of 27 seconds and 40 hundredths. She was overtaken by the Canadian Kylie Masse (27’31”), already author of the best time in the semi-finals, and the American Katharine Berkoff (27’39”).
This is the sixth medal for Canada at these world championships, the second gold. The first had been gleaned a few minutes earlier by Summer McIntosh in the 200-meter butterfly final. Kylie Masse was crowned Olympic vice-champion in the 100 meters and 200 meters backstroke in Tokyo last summer.
