French swimming star Leon Marchand began his 2025 World Aquatics Championships in style with the top men’s 200 IM qualifying swim on Wednesday, 30 July.
A large gathering of passionate Wang Shun supporters made for a cauldron-like atmosphere in Singapore’s World Championships Arena, but four-time Olympic champion Marchand looked relaxed and happy as he smiled and waved to a section of fans with tricolour flags behind the blocks.
The Toulouse man, who will only swim the medley events individually at this event, blasted out to an early lead, ahead of fellow Bob Bowman training mates Hubert Kos of Hungary and Team USA’s Shaine Casas.
He was, in fact, under world record time for the majority of the race, before easing up on the final leg to conserve energy for this evening’s semi-finals, touching home in top spot with 1:57.63.
Earlier in a stacked morning session, Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers took top spot in his men’s 100 freestyle heat with 47.48 to progress to this evening’s semis alongside last night’s 200 freestyle winner David Popovici of Romania, who sealed the top qualification time of 47.41.
Elsewhere, Canada’s reigning Olympic champion Summer McIntosh, already a two-time winner in Singapore, looked fresh after a rare day off from competition to take the top women’s 200 butterfly qualification time into this evening’s semis of 2:07.07.