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World swimming championships: “I haven’t slept much …”, Léon Marchand back in the 200m butterfly

About forty hours after his world title in the 400m medley, Léon Marchand, 20, plunged back into the pool of the Duna Arena in the 200m butterfly. With still stars in his eyes and in a lot of corners of his head.

“It’s quite hard because I haven’t slept much the last two nights, smiles the Toulousain. I was still thinking about my title. I was thinking about the race, seeing my parents and my family at the end, it was cool but you have to get back into it. “The restart was not necessarily obvious, with the 11th morning time (1′56′’38).

“The race is not crazy, I have trouble at the end, he summarizes. I’m not fluid enough in the first hundred meters, it’s a little tight in the last fifty, I’m not relaxed enough but we’ll sort that out. It will be better tonight (Editor’s note: semi-finals Monday at 7:35 p.m., final Tuesday at 6:54 p.m.). We will see that with Bob. »

Marchand can count on Bob Bowman, his American coach, to put his ideas in place. The former mentor of Michael Phelps is more than experienced in the sequence of races… and performances. “After his victory on Saturday, I told him that I was proud of him… and that he had to stay focused on his next race, summarizes the Arizona State University coach. He will have to hide what he did in the 400m medley. In this type of international meeting, you have to move forward one event after another while trying to stay as focused as possible on your objectives. But Léon is a humble and composed person. I know he will succeed in switching, even if what he experienced was particularly intense. It takes experience for the future. »

Final objective for Charlotte Bonnet

Charlotte Bonnet does not lack experience. But at 27, the former Niçoise almost started from scratch by joining Philippe Lucas in Martigues last fall after the painful Olympics. Still in the experimental phase, the European 200m NL champion took 10th place in the morning heats (1′58′’14) and will play for her place in the final on Monday evening.

“It’s always a bit difficult to enter directly into the 200m NL when usually I always have a front stint to get my legs going. (Editor’s note: the Blues had no 4x100m NL engaged), she explains. I try to go step by step, recover well, debrief well with Philippe. It’s still new for me to see how it goes with him, it’s never easy after all these changes. I feel fit but there are a lot of things above. The goal is to reach the final (Editor’s note: half Monday at 7:15 p.m.), after all is possible. »

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