World Swimming Championships: Léon Marchand wins the 400m medley by a landslide

Starting from lane number one, Marchand quickly distanced his rivals to finish the race in 4 minutes 4 seconds 73/100, more than three seconds ahead of all his pursuers.

He finished ahead of Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita, second in 4 min 8 sec 32, and Russia's Illia Borodin, third in 4 min 9 sec 16. Leading from the first length of the butterfly, he continued to increase his lead thereafter.

This year, at the World Championships, the Toulouse native preferred to give up the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly, which had brought him gold at the Olympics, to concentrate on the medley events and relays.

His strategy worked as he set a new world record in the 200m medley before winning another world title on Thursday.

In the 400m medley, he had set the 7th time in the heats in the morning, but made up for it in the final.

At 23, he won his third world title over the distance - for which he also holds the world record at 4 min 2 sec 50 - and his seventh in total.