Frenchman Léon Marchand, who broke the world record for 400 styles held by the legendary Michael Phels (Beijing 2008), joined the experienced Australian side in the first set of World Cup finals in Fukuoka, with victories for Ariarne Titmus (400 freestyle) and the women’s 4×100 relay, also with a world record, and for the men, as well as gold for Sam Short (400 freestyle).
If a priori the women’s 400m freestyle was the star of the first session of the World Cup finals, the spectacle offered by Marchand overshadowed everything.
And he did it because he sprayed in 1.34 seconds a record dating back to 2008, but mostly because its owner was a swimming legend: Michael Phelps. Marchand swam 15 years later in 4:02.50, Phelps had done it in 4:03.84.
The Frenchman from Toulouse received his medal from Phelps, a great way to receive the relay, to a swimmer ready to write history, who won three medals at the last World Cup (gold in the 200 and 400 medley, silver in the 200 butterfly) and who, at 21, has many years to reign the world styles.
Marchand was the protagonist, but also the prodigious demonstration of the Australian team, which won the four gold medals at stake in the first session (400 freestyle, men and women, 4×100 in both categories).
The first gold medal went to Ariarne Titmus, Olympic champion in the 400m freestyle, who also gave her name to Fukuoka’s first World Cup World Record, after beating American Katy Ledecki (3:58.73) in the final in 3:58.73, who finished second, and world record holder, young Canadian Summer McIntosh, fourth in the end.
Titmus, Ledecky and McIntosh, the three fastest swimmers over the distance, put on a great show at the Fukuoka Marine Messe swimming pool. The Oceanic dominated the race from start to finish, worried at first for McIntosh, but never for Ledecky.
The American lost her world title in a race that went from minus to plus, but she didn’t come to win. Titmus held off pressure from McIntosh in the first 200 meters (1:56.94 to 1:57.47) and after 300 Ledecky pushed and finished second, the Canadian slumped and lost the bronze, which went to New Zealand’s Erika Faireweather.
The third world record of the session was also the work of the ‘aussie’ team. The women’s 4×100 he swam in 3:27.96, below the previous mark that this same team had with 3:29.69 since the Tokyo Games.
Australians swam with Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon and they were imposed on the United States and China. In the men’s version of the same distance, there was a victory for the ocean men, but without a world record this time.
The quartet of Jack Cartwright, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Kyle Chalmers won ahead of teams from Italy and the United States. Spain, who made the final, finished eighth.
Another Australian also won gold, Sam Short, protagonist of the 400 freea high-level event, with the first two, Short and the Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, who is the current Olympic champion, defeating the record of the German Paul Bierdermann (3:40.07), one of the few remaining from the polyurethane era (Rome 2009).
Short and Hafnaoui swam 350 meters before Biedermann’s record. In the end, the young “Aussie” won with 3:40.68, two tenths less than the Tunisian. Lukas Martens of Germany won bronze in 3:42.20.
China’s Yufei Zhang was fastest in the 100m butterfly semifinals with 56.40 ahead of American Torri Huske, who holds the best world mark of the year (56.18), and who swam today in 56.76. Canadian Margaret MacNeil (56.78) was third fastest.
In the final, there will also be Australians Emma McKeon and Brianna Throssell, German Angelina Kohler, American Gretchen Wash and Frenchwoman Marie Wattel.
In the 50m butterfly, Frenchman Maxime Grousset (22.72) was the best of the semi-finals, where the Spaniard Mario Mollà was also present, who finished tenth with 23.16 and lowered his mark a little more.
Among the qualifiers for the final are American Dare Rose, Britain’s Peters, Italy’s Thomas Ceccon, Egypt’s Sameh, Britain’s Benhamin Proudy, Portugal’s Diogo de Matos and Austria’s Simon Bucher, who had to break the tie with Trinidadian Dylan Carter.
China’s Qin Haiyang was fastest in the 100m breaststroke semifinal, ahead of German Lucas Matzerath and American Nic Fink, while in the 200 IM, American Alex Walsh was fastest in the semi-finals. Chinese Yiting Yu finished second and Dutch Marrit Steenbergen who set the third fastest time in the semi-finals.
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