{"id":533616,"date":"2023-07-26T06:18:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T13:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=533616"},"modified":"2023-07-26T16:26:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T23:26:10","slug":"world-championships-day-four-semifinals-leon-marchand-in-position-for-200-medley-repeat-wr-within-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-four-semifinals-leon-marchand-in-position-for-200-medley-repeat-wr-within-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships, Day Four Semifinals: Leon Marchand In Position For 200 Medley Repeat; WR Within Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships, Day Four Semifinals: Leon Marchand In Position For 200 Medley Repeat<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s been the Leon Marchand<\/strong> Show through the first half of the World Championships, the French star matching the lofty expectations that followed him into the competition with a pair of gold medals in Fukuoka. And the second half of the meet could feature the 21-year-old grabbing a third title.<\/p>\n

A little more than a half hour after he blew away the field in the 200-meter butterfly, Marchand posted the fastest time in the semifinals of the 200 individual medley. The reigning champion in the event, Marchand opened up a big lead through the first three legs and cruised home on freestyle to finish in 1:56.34. That time was just ahead of the 1:56.50 turned in by Great Britain’s Duncan Scott<\/strong> in the same semifinal.<\/p>\n

Given that Marchand went 4:02.50 to break the world record in the 400 individual medley on the opening night of the meet, he figures to give Ryan Lochte’s<\/strong> 12-year-old mark a push in the 200 medley. Lochte set the longstanding record of 1:54.00 at the 2011 edition of the World Championships in Shanghai. Marchand captured the world title in the event last year in 1:55.22.<\/p>\n

The silver medalist in the 200 IM at last year’s World Championships, American Carson Foster will look for a return to the podium. Like Marchand, Foster competed in the 200 butterfly on Wednesday night. Foster finished sixth in that event, unable to find a rhythm. But he knew he had to bounce back quickly and that’s exactly what unfolded, with the University of Texas star going 1:56.55 for the third seed.<\/p>\n

“It takes practice, obviously,” Foster said about rebounding. “There\u2019s been times where it sucks to practice that stuff, but it\u2019s worth it for meets like this. I was pretty pissed about it for a few minutes, but it\u2019s a long meet and I earned my spot in these other events, so I owe it to the rest of the team to have a short memory.”<\/p>\n

Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez<\/strong> (1:56.58) and the Japanese duo of So Ogata<\/strong> (1:57.06) and Daiya Seto<\/strong> (1:57.15) also moved onto the final, along with Great Britain’s Tom Dean<\/strong> (1:57.18) and American Shaine Casas<\/strong> (1:57.23).<\/p>\n