By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2024 Championnats Interclubs TC
- November 10, 2024
- Montauban, France
- Short Course Meters (25 meters)
- Meet Results
Quadruple Olympic champion Leon Marchand is training at home with his childhood club in Toulouse this fall with plans to return to Bob Bowman in Austin, Texas, USA after the holidays.
In preparation for the upcoming Short Course World Championships, he participated in a local interclubs championship meet. Marchand was one of a handful of Olympians who participated in the meet; he won his only individual event of the meet, the 200 breast, in 2:06.12.
While that time was several second slower than the French Record of 2:02.99 that he swam at the Shanghai World Cup, there was something fairly interesting about the swim: he did the first length with only one stroke.
The result was a 29.68 on the first 50 meter split, which was about a second-and-a-half slower than he was going in the World Cups.
He also swam on three relays for Toulouse. In the 10×50 free relay he split 21.17, in the 4×200 free relay he split 1:42.91, and in the 4×100 medley relay he split 57.29 on the breaststroke leg. All of those were on rolling starts.
Other Olympians in attendance included Paulina Mahieu, who will attend SC Worlds. Representing Canet 66 Natation, she won the 50 free (25.14), 200 free (1:58.53), and 100 back (57.85). This meet came shortly after swimming lifetime bests in the 200 free (1:57.03), 50 back (26.57), and 200 back (2:02.85) at the French Championships.
Anastasia Kirpichinkova, Olympic silver medalist in the 1500 free, won the 400 free at this meet in 4:11.93. That was the longest race on the schedule. She also split 2:00.33 on a flat-start 200 free and 26.45 on a flat-start 50 free.
Analia Pigree, who wasn’t on the Olympic team but will be on the Short Course Worlds team, won the 100 free in 54.55, about 1.4 seconds shy of her personal best.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Leon Marchand Swims One-Stroke 25 Breaststroke at Interclub Championships