Watch: Leon Marchand Split 21.97 50 Freestyle At The SCM Interclub Championships
11/11/2024 12:05 PM
By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
Fresh off his impressive performance and overall victory at the 2024 Swimming World Cup, Leon Marchandwas back in the water at the short-course meters Interclub Championships in Montauban, France. Marchand raced four times for his club team, Dauphins du TOEC, helping them finish first among the 19 men's teams in action.
First, Marchand swam second on the 10×50 freestyle relay, clocking 21.97 with a flying start. The swim is well under the 22.61 he swam on the first 50 of his 100 free prelims swim at the second leg of the World Cup in Incheon. That was his first registered 50 freestyle in short-course meters.
Watch his 50 freestyle split below, courtesy of Bleuoccitanie on Twitter.
Léon Marchand est à Montauban ce dimanche, pour les championnats interclubs régionaux !
Avec les Dauphins du TOEC, le quadruple champion olympique a participé au relais 10×50m nage libre.#natation#Montaubanpic.twitter.com/IqXy5Nkb8B
— France Bleu Occitanie (@bleuoccitanie) November 10, 2024
He was back up in the 200 breaststroke, where he won by 11 seconds. Marchand powered to a 2:06.12, splitting 1:01.30/1:4.82 as he posted the second-fastest swim of his career. Until the Shanghai World Cup, Marchand hadn't swum the short-course meters 200 breaststroke in almost five years. He swam 2:06.68 in Shanghai prelims, before taking fourth in the final with a 2:02.99, which stands as his lifetime best.
The 200 breaststroke was Marchand's only individual swim of the day. After that, he was back on two more relays. He anchored the Dolphins' 4×200 freestyle relay in 1:42.91, teaming with Guillaume Guth(1:48.72), Jaouad Syoud(1:47.77), and Swann Plaza (1:47.07) for the win in 7:06.47. Marchand took on the short-course meters 200 freestyle for the first time in his career at the Singapore World Cup stop. There, he posted his lifetime best flat start of 1:40.91, finishing second to Duncan Scott's Triple Crown-winning 1:39.83.
Finally, Marchand swam breaststroke on the Dolphins' winning 4×100 medley relay. Antonie Herlem got the squad a big lead on the backstroke leg (52.18), which Marchand extended with a 57.29 breaststroke split. Alexander D'Agata split 52.16 on fly, and Guth brought the quartet home in 48.73 for an overall time of 3:30.36.
This was a low-stakes meet for Marchand, but it allowed him to race for his club team and get more practice racing in short-course meters before the SC World Championships next month, particularly in relays, which he didn't get at the World Cup.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Watch: Leon Marchand Split 21.97 50 Freestyle At The SCM Interclub Championships
