Marchand gears up for 200m IM world record bid / Photo: MANAN VATSYAYANA - AFP
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Marchand gears up for 200m IM world record bid
Leon Marchand geared up for an assault on the 200m individual medley world record Wednesday as he cruised through the heats to start his world championship campaign in Singapore.
France's Olympic hero, who won four individual golds at last year's Paris Games, is looking to break Ryan Lochte's 200m IM world record of 1min 54.00sec, which has stood since 2011.
Marchand is competing only in the medley events in Singapore and he hinted he would go all out for the record in Wednesday evening's semi-finals.
"I'll try to get close to my best time tonight," said Marchand, whose personal best in the event is only six hundredths of a second outside the record.
"I want to start faster than usual and see what happens."
Marchand clocked the fastest time in Wednesday morning's heats in 1:57.63.
Japan's Kosuke Makino was second in 1:57.74, with American Shaine Casas third in 1:57.76.
Marchand's biggest rival is more likely to be Lochte's world record, having already taken down Michael Phelps's 400m IM mark two years ago.
"It was good, I swam well, I think I pretty much did what I wanted to do," Marchand said after his heat.
"There are a few technical details that I'll go over with my coach, things I can improve on for tonight."
Summer McIntosh was back in action, finishing fastest in the women's 200m butterfly heat in a time of 2min 07.07sec.
The Canadian teenager has already bagged two gold medals in Singapore and she is looking to join Phelps as the only swimmer to win five individual titles at a single world championships.
Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi joined McIntosh in the semi-finals, coming through in a fifth-fastest time of 2:08.95.
Yu finished fourth behind McIntosh in the 200m IM final on Monday.
Romania's David Popovici followed up his gold in Tuesday's 200m freestyle final with a fastest time of 47.41sec in the 100m heats.
Australia's Kyle Chalmers (47.48) was second, with China's Olympic champion and world record holder Pan Zhanle (47.86) and American Jack Alexy (48.07) also progressing.
"I'm the major underdog and the media has made that quite clear in the lead-up to this, that it's a race really between Alexy, Popovici and Pan," said Chalmers, who clocked the same time as he did in the Paris Olympics final, where he claimed silver.
"I'm really enjoying being able to fly under the radar."
E.Heinen--JdB
