Léon Marchand might be French but he led a Texas-flavored moment at the swim worlds

SINGAPORE (AP) — Léon Marchand of France won gold in the 200-meter individual medley at the swimming world championships on Thursday — and it had a Texas flavor to it.

American swimmer Shaine Casas claimed the silver and Hubert Kós of Hungary took the bronze. The three — from three different countries — all train with American Bob Bowman at the University of Texas at Austin.

Bowman is famous, of course, for training legendary American Michael Phelps.

Marchand, who shattered the 200 IM world record just 24 hours earlier in the semifinal, almost did it again as he finished in 1 minute, 53.68 seconds. That was just off his Wednesday mark of 1:52.69.

Both times blew away the old mark of 1:54.00 set 14 years ago by American Ryan Lochte.

“It was a bit tough today, but it was great,” Marchand said. “I know Shaine always goes out super fast so I knew I couldn’t be far off him. It was a battle all the way to the end, so that was cool for me.”

Marchand won four individual gold medals a year ago in the Paris Olympics but is only swimming for two individual golds in Singapore.

He already holds the 400 IM record of 4:02.50 from the 2023 worlds. That one may go on Sunday on the eighth and closing day.

“That’s still a whole new challenge,” Marchand added of the 400. “I know I’ve gained a lot of power, but I’m not sure yet it makes a big difference over the 400. We’ll see.”

He also praised Bowman and said it was difficult to come back after his draining record swim.

“I was going for the title and I was racing my teammates,” Marchand said. “We’re sharing the podium together. That just shows how good a coach Bowman is at swimming.”

McIntosh show

Summer McIntosh of Canada won the 200-meter butterfly for her third gold of the championships. She was on pace to break the world record after 150 meters but faded, finishing in 2:01.99. The record is 2:01.81 set in 2009 in the super-suit era by Liu Zige of China.

McIntosh will also start training this fall under Bowman at Texas.

American Regan Smith took silver (2:04.99), with bronze for Elizabeth Dekkers of Australia (2:06.12). Yu Zidi, the 12-year-old Chinese prodigy, was fourth in 2:06.43. It was her second fourth-place finish at the worlds.

“My coach and I, our goal was to break the world record,” McIntosh said, openly disappointed she just missed it. “That’s what I’ve been training for — I missed it by that little, and I know that I messed up the last 15 meters of my race. I didn’t reach my goal today.”

It was, however, the second fastest time in history.

Popovici wins

David Popovici of Romania took the 100 freestyle in 46.51, the second fastest time in history behind the 46.40 set last year by Pan Zhanle of China. Pan failed to reach the final. American Jack Alexy was the silver medalist (46.92) and Kyle Chalmers of Australia claimed the bronze (47.17).

Popovici was the bronze medalist a year ago in Paris in the 100 and he won the 200.

“Usually the one who wins is the one who can isolate themselves from others.” Popovici said of his race tactics. He also talked about constructing imaginary walls between his lane and the others.

“I imagine I’m alone and do what I trained for,” he said.

American Katharine Berkoff of the United States took the 50 backstroke (27.08), just edging teammate Regan Smith (27.25) with bronze going to Wan Letian of China (27.30). It was Smith’s second silver of the night and the Americans’ fourth gold.

The Americans have won four golds over five days. The team seems to still be battling a stomach bug picked up at its training camp in Thailand, but head coach Greg Meehan has suggested team health is improving.

Gretchen Walsh of the United States pulled out of the women’s 100 freestyle.

The women’s 4×200 freestyle relay went to Australia (7:39.35), with silver for the United States (7:40.01) and bronze for China (7:42.99). It was Australia’s fifth gold and it tops the gold-medal table.

Yu, the 12 year old, will get a bronze, having swum in the preliminaries.

In the four semifinals, Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands led the women’s 100 freestyle qualifiers, and Pieter Coetze of South Africa did the same in the 200 backstroke as he looks to complete the double.

Neutral Athlete Evgenila Chikunova led the women’s 200 breaststroke and Japan’s Ippei Watanabe topped the men’s 200 breaststroke.

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