Miami (AFP) – Quadruple Olympic gold medallist Leon Marchand was still waiting for his first win of the Tyr Pro Swim meeting in Fort Lauderdale on Friday after Bobby Finke snatched a 400m individual medley victory over the world record-holder. Trailing after the butterfly and backstroke legs, Marchand had moved to the front after the breaststroke and turned for home midway through the final freestyle leg with a narrow lead. But Finke was able to run down the Frenchman — who had also made a rare start in the 200m free earlier Friday — winning in 4min 13.67sec to Marchand’s 4:13.86. “I was just very thankful Leon had the 200 before,” Finke said.
Marchand, who won the 200m breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley and the 400m IM at the Paris Olympics, is competing this week for the first time in four months, having opted out of the short-course world championships in December. Since then, the 22-year-old had sought a change of pace by training in Australia before rejoining coach Bob Bowman, who said this week that things were “all good” with the French star with the World Championships in Singapore coming up July 27-August 3.
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Marchand, who notched a personal best in finishing third in the 400m free on Thursday, finished eighth in the 200m free, touching in 1:49.66 in a race won by Carson Foster in 1:46.46. In other events, Gretchen Walsh became just the second woman to break 25 seconds in the 50m butterfly, setting an American record of 24.93 in a victory over Kate Douglass and Regan Smith. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who holds the world record of 24.43, is the only other woman to crack 25 seconds in the event, doing so multiple times.
Claire Weinstein handed Katie Ledecky her first defeat of the week, clocking 1:54.93 to win the 200m freestyle ahead of the nine-time Olympic gold medallist, who finished second in 1:55.51. The runner-up finish followed two scintillating swims from Ledecky, who posted the second-fastest 1,500m free time ever on Wednesday and her fastest 400m free time in nine years on Thursday. Hungary’s Paris Olympics gold medallist Hubert Kos cruised to victory in the 200m backstroke, touching in 1:56.45sec with Gavin Keogh second, 2.02sec back.
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