France’s Leon Marchand made a statement to dominate the men’s 200m individual medley on a very promising night for Great Britain at the Short Course World Cup in Shanghai, defeating Duncan Scott. Marchand made it his second win after victory in the 100m individual medley on Friday with an eye-opening World Cup record time of 1:50.30.
This race was Marchand’s first competitive competition since his incredible four-gold-medal performance at the Paris Olympics. Taking the lead of this race from after the half-distance mark, Marchand commented, “It was a pretty good race and I’m happy with the time so it’s cool.”
Scott, who won the 400m freestyle earlier in the meet and came third in the 100m individual medley, finished the day off by finishing in second place with a time of 1:51.08. Noe Ponti of Switzerland completed the podium finishing with the third place time of 1:51.78. Scott spoke on the competitive setting saying “It’s good fun racing those boys as it brings the best out of all of us, but that was pretty tough.”
James Guy of Great Britain finished fourth in the men’s 200m butterfly. The Short Course World Cup series rolls on with two more races planned for South Korea from October 24 through 26 and in Singapore from October 31 to November 2. It also doubles as a qualifying event for Hungary later this year for the 2024 Short Course World Championships.
