The 200 butterfly, the most iconic test of Michael Phelps and the one that brought the Hungarian Kristof Milak to another galaxy, absent from the Fukuoka World Championships due to poor form, elevated Leon Marchand once again, the French heir who accumulates two golds in two tests. With overwhelming authority, Bob Bowman’s pupil took control of the test from 70 meters on and did not let go until he touched the wall. He was the first, with the twelfth mark in the history of the test (1:52.43). Ahead, only two men now: Milak and Phelps.
After his exhibition in the 400 styles, when he smashed the world record, the biomechanics who study in detail the technique and the keys of the races translated the sensations into numbers after watching the final: Marchand’s submarines had led him to the world record. In those 15 meters underwater, always pushing to the limit, the swimmer had recovered two seconds from Phelps’s marks, the time necessary to achieve the record. “I look at how Dressel does them,” he told Olympics.com in an interview ahead of the Worlds.
The same thing happened in the fun butterfly final. Unrivaled by the fall from 100 of Carson Foster, who arrived with the best mark, Marchand made the first 50 in 25.42, well behind Milak’s mark when he achieved the record in Budapest 2022 (24.19). but in the next length he lost less distance coinciding with the 15-meter underwater (27.70 from the Hungarian, by 28.17) and even the last 50 was better than that of the Frenchman (29.83 of a Milak who arrived drowned, by 29.28 of a Marchand who arrived full). Marchand was surely not the swimmer with the best butterfly but his mastery of the underwater led him to gold.
Behind was the Polish Krzysztof Chmielewski, with 1:53.62, the Japanese Tomoru Honda, with 1:53.66. The stands celebrated the medal of their 21-year-old swimmer as a triumph. The American talent of only 16 years old Thomas Heilman He set the best age mark in his country, beating Phelps again (1:53.66). Foster was sixth in 1:54.74, far from his best.
Hafnaoui, the ‘rogue’ in the 800 of the records
The poster for the 800 final was unbeatable, especially since the fastest in the heats and those who dominated the central streets came from the 400 freestyle, among them the Australian Samuel Short, champion, and the Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, silver in Fukuoka, Olympic champion in Tokyo. Both, along with the German Lukas Maertens, launched the race from the start to eliminate the 800 specialists, putting a devilish pace from the start: Gregorio Paltrinieri and Mykhailo Romanchuk stayed by the wayside.
When passing through the 400, the three swimmers were even, only 33 hundredths above the world record (3:47.12). It was impossible to keep up with such a frenetic pace, and the piston began to go down while the American and Olympic champion of the specialty, Bobby Finke, He was beginning to progress towards medals. Next to him, the Irishman Daniel Wiffen. The test was in five brave, and all ended up making history in the fastest race ever.
When Finke inexorably approached, and his end is feared, the Tunisian Hafnaoui gave him one more gear and launched for the gold. The Australian tried to follow him while the German blew up, a full blown mallet man. Finke pushed as hard as he could but settled for bronze. The beautiful final was that of records. Hafnaoui achieved the third best mark in history (7: 37.00), Samuel Short broke Grant Hackett’s legendary Oceania record (7:37.76), Bobby Finke got the American record (7:38.67) and the Irishman Daniel Wiffen smashed the European record (7:39.19).
Popovici does not pick up the pace and Qin scores his second gold
In the other two finals of the day, the Chinese Haiyang Qin, who had already won the 100 breaststroke, won the double in the absence of Adam Peaty with a lower mark than he did in the semifinals (26.29). The 24-year-old Chinese swimmer is stubborn in beating the British records, for the moment he has added two golds and is positioned for the Paris Games. He was followed by the American Nic Fink (26.59) and the Chinese Jiajun Sun (26.79). Qin himself was part of the 4×100 medley relay that China won in 3:38.57 ahead of Australia (3:39.03) and the United States (3:40.19).
After the unexpected fourth place of the Romanian phenomenon David Popovici in the 200 free, The one from Bucharest launched himself in the 100 to get into the final and he did it but far from the overwhelming dominance he showed last year. Popovici posted a 47.66, fifth best, and will swim the 2nd lane this Thursday. The classifieds all stayed in only four tenths.