Quadruple Olympic gold medallist Leon Marchand was denied his first win of the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale on Friday, narrowly losing the 400m individual medley to American distance star Bobby Finke.
Finke surged past Marchand in the final freestyle stretch, winning in 4:13.67 to the French swimmer’s 4:13.86. Marchand had pulled ahead after the breaststroke leg but couldn’t hold off Finke’s trademark closing speed.
“I was just very thankful Leon had the 200 before,” Finke quipped, referring to Marchand’s earlier participation in the 200m freestyle — a race in which Marchand finished a distant eighth.
Despite the setback, Marchand showed strong form in his first competition in four months, having skipped December’s short course world championships. The 22-year-old trained briefly in Australia before returning to longtime coach Bob Bowman ahead of July’s World Championships in Singapore.
Marchand, who won four gold medals at the Paris Olympics last year, had already posted a personal best to finish third in the 400m freestyle on Thursday.
Meanwhile, American sprint sensation Gretchen Walsh lit up the pool by becoming just the second woman ever to dip below 25 seconds in the 50m butterfly. Her 24.93sec swim set a new American record, placing her behind only Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström, who holds the world record of 24.43.
In another upset, Claire Weinstein outpaced Katie Ledecky in the 200m freestyle, finishing in 1:54.93 to Ledecky’s 1:55.51. It marked Ledecky’s first loss of the week after her dominant performances in the 1,500m and 400m freestyle.
Hungary’s Hubert Kos, fresh off his Paris Olympics gold, took an easy win in the 200m backstroke with a time of 1:56.45.
