French swimmer Léon Marchand wins gold in Euros 400m freestyle

French swimming star Léon Marchand powered to his second gold of the European championships in Saint-Denis, close to Paris on Sunday, easing to victory within the 400m freestyle, an occasion he hardly ever races.

Clocking 3min 43.14sec, he gained by a margin of 1.32 seconds over Hungary’s Oliver Papai. The bronze went to Germany’s Lukas Martens, the world document holder.

Four-time Olympic champion Marchand had already gained gold within the 200m butterfly ultimate and had been the fourth-fastest qualifier within the 400m freestyle heats earlier Sunday.

Read extraFrench swimmer Marchand wins first Euros gold as Germany’s Liebmann breaks 1500m free world document

Marchand was one of many stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics, successful gold within the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke, in addition to the 200m particular person medley and the 400m medley.

He additionally took a bronze within the 4x100m medley relay.

The 24-year-old is racing a decreased schedule on the Europeans as he continues to recuperate from a thigh damage.

Earlier, Hungarian Hubert Kos gained the boys’s 200m particular person medley title within the absence of Marchand for his third gold of the championships.

Kos accomplished the four-length race in 1:54.24 for his third gold in Paris after the 200m backstroke and males’s 100m freestyle relay.

For the 23-year-old it was additionally his third European gold medal within the occasion, following victories in 2022 and 2024.

Kos constructed a major lead in the course of the backstroke leg earlier than seeing Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez cost in direction of him. Kos held agency within the ultimate metres to safe the win.

He completed two-tenths of a second forward of Gonzalez, whereas 18-year-old Russian Mikhail Shcherbakov, competing beneath a impartial flag, took the bronze.

Golden finale for Quadarella

Italy’s Simona Quadarella completed in model by successful the ladies’s 400m freestyle ultimate, simply days after securing titles within the 800m and 1,500m occasions.

After holding third place for a lot of the race, Quadarella (4:01.74) surged forward within the ultimate 100 metres to see off Germans Isabel Gose and Maya Werner.

The 27-year-old had beforehand achieved a 400m, 800m, and 1,500m freestyle treble on the 2018 European Championships in Rome.

She additionally holds three long-course world titles and an Olympic bronze medal, gained within the 800m on the Tokyo Games in 2020.

Britain’s Keanna Macinnes gained the ladies’s 200m butterfly as Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte claimed gold within the girls’s 100m breaststroke.

Macinnes was nicely forward of the European document tempo for a lot of the race, however misplaced floor on the ultimate size to clock 2:05.90.

Meilutyte, the Olympic 100m breaststroke champion in 2012, gained the European 50m breaststroke for the third time in a time of 29.93sec.

Defending champion Apostolos Christou of Greece retained his 100m backstroke gold medal as Ukrainian teenager Nikita Sheremet gained his first title within the males’s 50m freestyle on the ultimate day of competitors.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)