France’s Leon Marchand smashed Michael Phelps’s last remaining world record on Sunday, winning the men’s 400m individual medley at swimming’s world championships in Japan.
Marchand clocked 4min, 02.50 — more than a second faster than Phelps — to finish ahead of American Carson Foster in 4:06.56 and Japan’s Daiya Seto in 4:09.41.
Phelps’s record of 4:03.84sec had stood since the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was the longest-held world record in swimming.
Marchand, who is coached by Phelps’s former mentor Bob Bowman, swam the second-fastest 400 IM ever at last year’s world championships in Budapest, coming home in 4:04.28.
The Frenchman insisted on Saturday that breaking the record was just “a step in my journey”.
Marchand is expected to be one of the faces of the Paris Olympics next year.
