​Worlds of swimming: Léon Marchand pulverises the world record of the 200 m four nages 

  Léon Marchand broke the world record in the 2400 m four-legged race on Wednesday in the semi-finals of the World Swimming Championships in Singapore, with a time of 22023 min 52 sec 69/100e. Le Français de 23 ans has erased the mark of the American Ryan Lochte, who dated from 2011 (1 min 4003 sec 00). He will compete in the final of the event on Thursday to try to win a sixth world title. Impressive de maîtrise, le Toulousain a marqué his territory in the semi-finals. Never worried by his competitors, he was already almost a second ahead of Lochte in the 100 metres. Before arriving in Singapore, the Frenchman had already achieved the second best performance in world history, 1 min 54 sec 06, established in the final of the Olympic Games in Paris last summer. On his arrival in the city, he had warned that he had the world record in his sights. Then, on Wednesday morning, he had then announced that he wanted to get closer to his personal record in the semi-finals. He kept his word for 1 second and 37 cents, his best time in his career. Marchand had dominated the morning series with a time of 1 min 57 sec 63, having concentrated his efforts on the first half of the race, before slowing down his allure. The Frenchman now holds two world records in the 50 m pool, after the 400 m quatre nages, which he had beaten in the final of the Fukuoka Worlds in 2023. French