Swimming: Léon Marchand comes from behind to beat defending champ Milák in men’s 200m fly
Here come the Allez les Bleus chants.
For it’s the men’s 200m butterfly final, featuring 400m IM champ Léon Marchand in lane five.
But next to him in lane four as the fastest qualifier, the defending champion and world record holder, Kristóf Milák of Hungary.
Just listen to that roar as Marchand is introduced!
And a reprise of that as they hit the water. Milák has gone out really quickly in the first 50 as Marchand holds back. The lead at the first split is 0.64 seconds.
Marchand starts to turn it on as does Canada’s Ilya Kharun in lane three. It’s still Milak at halfway, by 0.60 seconds.
This crowd is doing their best to shout their man on to a win. It’s still Milák at 150 though, and the lead has grown to 0.72!
The noise is deafening. Here comes Marchand!
Milák has gone out too fast, hasn’t he? This is remarkable! Léon Marchand wins in a new Olympic record time!
Marchand waggles a finger in the air. And he has another final tonight!
1:51.21.
Milák looks shattered by his effort. He wins silver, 0.54 behind.
Kharun wins bronze in 1:52.80.
In case you missed it, Marchand’s coach Bob Bowman, who used to coach Michael Phelps, has been taking French lessons! 👇
The news has also reached other venues: our badminton reporter tells us the French crowd at La Chapelle Arena just broke out into chants of "Léon Marchand".
