Racing in the final of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay this evening, Bob Bowman-trained Marchand unleashed a monster lifetime best of 1:43.76 as lead-off, with his squad ultimately hitting a time of 7:02.23 for silver. Two-time Olympic champions Great Britain were too quick to catch, registering a new Championships Record of 7:01.52 en route to gold, as Germany settled for the bronze only .05 behind France in 7:02.28. As for Marchand, the versatile ace split 23.97/26.11 (50.08)/26.88/26.80 to score the fastest lead-off of any relay. Marchand’s lifetime best in the 200m free entering this competition rested at the 1:46.44 he put on the books at the 2023 French Championships, so the man blasted that to bits with tonight’s performance. Marchand is now the 6th-fastest men’s 200m freestyle performer in history.