Olympic swimming: France’s Leon Marchand wins 400m medley gold in Olympic record time
France’s Leon Marchand set a new Olympic record as he dominated the 400m individual medley to win gold.
The 22-year-old finished 5.67 seconds clear of Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita in second and the USA’s Carson Foster at the La Defense Arena.
Marchand finished just outside his own world record time but beat the Olympic best, previously set by American great Michael Phelps at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Great Britain’s Max Litchfield finished fourth in the event for a third Olympics in a row, but set a new British record of four minutes 8.85 seconds.
Marchand, who has been one of the poster boys of the Games, is coached in the US by Phelps’ former mentor Bob Bowman, having sent a letter to the 59-year-old American prior to the last Olympics asking for help.
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