
French youngster Leon Marchand produced a dazzling performance to shatter American great Michael Phelps’ long-standing 400m individual medley record on the opening day of swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships.
Phelps’ mark of 4:03.84 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics was his last remaining individual world record but it fell to the 21-year-old Marchand who started superbly and clocked 4:02.50 – smashing the old record by 1.34s – to beat Carson Foster who took silver.