Not many men will be able to say they beat off a challenge from Léon Marchand in the year the Frenchman collected four Olympic golds as the hero of a Home Games at Paris 2024 but Duncan Scott is one of them and he did it with a serious assault on the 200m freestyle shiny suit World record in the 200m freestyle as the 2024 World Cup drew to a close in Singapore today.

Olympic 4x200m freestyle champion twice and winner of six other Games medals for Britain, Scott clocked 1:39.83 to establish a Commonwealth, British and Scottish standards as the first man in the Commonwealth to race inside 1:40 in the s/c 200 free.

Now all-time No4, his winning effort today in Singapore 1.08sec ahead of Marchand left him just 0.46sec shy of the shiny suited pace of German's Paul Biedermann in the the last season of equipment banned from January 1, 2010 as not only performance enhancing but that in ways that served some far better than others depending win build, angles of buoyancy and related.

As he did a week ago in Incheon, Scott raced inside Biedermann's world-record pace until the dash for home, when the lack of equipment performance enhancement confirmed a tale of poor governance that only turned a corner because pressure was brought to bear.

Faster at the 50m mark than he was in Incheon a week ago, Scott shadowed his own top pace at a 0.1sec margin over the next 100m before firing off a 25.50 finish that settled business in decisive fashion.

The splits compared:

• 23.54; 48.83; 1:14.33; 1:39.83 (25.50) Scott, Singapore, Nov 2, 2024
• 23.60; 48.72; 1:14.23; 1:40.29 (26.06) Scott, Incheon, Oct 26, 2024
• 23.79; 49.29; 1:14.72; 1:39.37 (24.65) Biedermann, Berlin, Nov 15, 2009

Visit our other last-day reports for more World Cup action and other reports, including World-record swims by Regan Smith and Noè Ponti:

Smith Doubles Down On WR Form With 1:58.8 S/C Mark Inside McKeown’s 2020 High

The American’s bravura blast added the eight-length little-pool standard to her global marks in the 100m in both short- and long-course pools and made it three world records on the 2024 short-course Cup tour as the series ended in Singapore

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Ponti Punches Another WR At Pace Of Popov On Freestyle With Dashing 21.50 On ’Fly At Cup Curtain-Closer

Swiss ace Noè Ponti backs up 21.50 WR in heats with 21.64 victory, the top 4 all-time performances now in his grip, with Dutch rival Nyls Korstanje now all-time No2 performer with his second-place 21.74. Plus: Léon Marchand completes medley bull run as Singapore concludes the 2024 series

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord