Sawt Falasteen - Marchand wins 200m medley gold, day after world record

Marchand did not match his previous night's heroics but his time of 1min 53.68sec in the Singapore final was still the second-fastest of all time.

Marchand was made to work hard for the win, with American Shaine Casas pushing him hard before finishing second in 1:54.30, with Hungary's Hubert Kos third in 1:55.34.

It gave Marchand, who won four individual golds in front of his home fans at the Paris Olympics a year ago, his first gold in Singapore.

"I'm just so happy to be at my highest level right now, competing in front of this pretty cool crowd," said the 23-year-old.

Marchand took an extended break from swimming after his Paris Olympics heroics and only returned to competition in May.

He is focusing on the medley events in Singapore and had said at the outset that he was aiming to break the 200m medley record.

He did that in style in Wednesday's semi-finals, setting a new mark of 1min 52.69sec to wipe more than a second off the previous record of 1:54.00 set by Ryan Lochte in 2011.

His performance in the final could not quite reach that level but it was enough to deliver France's first gold of the championships.

L.AbuAli--SF-PST