Tomoyuki matsushita

Paris La Defense Arena: Emotions ran high at the Paris La Defense Arena as local hero Leon Marchand clinched France's first Olympic swimming gold medal since the London 2012 Games.

Willed on by frenzied support from home fans, Marchand led the men's 400m individual medley relay final at every turn to finish ahead of Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita and Carson Foster of the United States in an Olympic record time of four minutes, 2.95 seconds, reports Xinhua.

"I definitely dreamed of that before, every one of us did. Doing this in my hometown is pretty cool," Marchand said.