Night of a long wait for a world record

The buzzer sounds. An Omega clock starts to tick.

- Rohit Brijnath

It's 8.04pm on the final day of the World Aquatics Championships and Leon Marchand, son of Olympians and cousin of Aquaman, is trying, in a manner of speaking, to defeat eight things in the 400m individual medley (IM). Seven other men and that clock. He wants a 1 by his name and perhaps also a WR. One is the greatest number, the other is the finest acronym.

World Record.

It's what I've come to see on this night.

The WR is somewhat rare – the men's 400m IM record has been broken only thrice in the past 20 years – which is why they are unforgettable. People say this is a "fast" pool but what is more readily verifiable is that Marchand, a Frenchman, is a fast fellow. Days earlier Chad le Clos, four-medal Olympian, pays him an Everest of a compliment. "He's like a young Michael (Phelps). He's got everything. Speed, endurance, nerve under pressure."

Records are usually snipped, sliced and shaved. They're set by a fingernail and broken by an eyelash. The faster humans go, the tighter the margins logically become.

Yet in the 200m IM on July 30, Marchand lops over a second off the world record. He doesn't break it, he mutilates it. Human potential, he reminds us, is a well whose depth we cannot comprehend.