Michael Phelps watches on as final particular person world document shattered by 22-year-old French star

FUKUOKA, Japan, July 23 – French teen Leon Marchand produced a blinding efficiency to shatter American nice Michael Phelps’ long-standing 400 meters particular person medley document on the opening day of swimming occasions on the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday.

Phelps’ mark of 4:03.84 set on the 2008 Beijing Olympics was his final remaining particular person world document nevertheless it fell to the 21-year-old Marchand who began fantastically and clocked 4:02.50 to beat Carson Foster who took silver.

“That was insane, one of the crucial painful issues I’ve executed. It was wonderful to do it right here and the time is loopy,” Marchand, who’s coached by Phelps’ former mentor Bob Bowman stated.

“The perfect is but to return,” added Marchand, who collected his medal on the victory ceremony from Phelps.

There was cheer for residence followers on the Marine Messe Fukuoka Corridor as Japan’s Daiya Seto took the bronze ending greater than six seconds behind Marchand.

Earlier, Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus set a world document by blazing to the end line in a battle royale for the ladies’s 400m freestyle title on an ideal day within the pool for Australia.

Titmus eclipsed the mark of 16-year-old Canadian prodigy Summer season McIntosh set at her nationwide trials earlier this yr, ending in three minutes, 55.38 – a shocking 3.35 seconds forward of silver medallist and 2022 champion Katie Ledecky.

Victory means the 22-year-old has not misplaced a 400m freestyle race she has competed in for 5 years.

“I’ve put in quite a lot of work the previous six weeks that I’ve been actually proud of and took quite a bit away from trials,” Titmus stated. “I swam the way in which I wished to, however knew I had sufficient time to show that round and got here right here tonight and tried to be fearless.

“Summer season and Katie are each class acts and there’s hardly any faults of their racing. I knew the one means was to try to take the win… I assume (it was) whoever had probably the most combat in the long run and whoever had the perfect left within the tank.”

The conflict between the trio had already generated “race of the century” hype, 20 years after Ian Thorpe beat Pieter van den Hoogenband and Phelps on the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Though it was not as shut a contest as followers would have favored, Titmus’s blistering effort laid down a marker for subsequent yr’s Paris Video games.

New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather edged out a upset McIntosh to bag bronze, ending 4.21 seconds behind Titmus.