2013 French Nationals Preview; Agnel Back Off The 400 Free Bandwagon

Aidan Pongrace is an American high school student who just-so-happens to be studying and training abroad for his senior year in Rennes, France, the host of this year’s French National Championships. He is a member of the legendary NCAP team in the Washington D.C. area, and has previously written for the Washington Post’s ‘Reach for the Wall’ swimming website.

As early as last Thursday, France’s top swimmer’s started to gather in Rennes, France for “Les Championnats de France de Natation.” As the meet will serve as the qualifying meet for this summer’s World Championships in Barcelona, nearly all of France’s Olympic medalists are in attendance, including Camille Muffat, Yannick Agnel, Frederick Bousquet, Camille Lacourt, Florent Manadou, and every member of France’s gold medal winning 4×100 free relay in London aside from Clement Lefert.

• Full, live results of the meet are available here.

Similar to the American system of qualification for Worlds, the French should take the top two qualifiers in each event as long as they have achieved the FINA A standard. In the case that an event has no swimmers make the FINA A standard, things become more complicated. It’s France so bureaucracy should be expected. In this case, a male swimmer 20 or younger if he wins his event, achieves a FINA B standard in either prelims or semi finals, AND if he achieves another cut, the “relève internationale,” in finals. For female swimmers the age limit is 18. Complicated, I know.

The French, as per usual, are really strong in the long axis strokes, especially in the freestyle events. Yannick Agnel is the man to beat in 200 free as he has the top time this year by nearly four seconds. In the 100 however, the only other event he is entered in as he chose to opt out of the 400, he only has the fourth best time in France this year behind Gregory Mallet, a member of the 2008 silver medal winning 4×100 free relay, and two of his teammates from CN Marseille. In fact, Agnel has yet to break 50 seconds since London.

Agnel again shifted back to not swimming the 400; that was one of his better races when he was younger; in the Olympic year, he gave it up in long course, but then ended 2012 by breaking the short course World Record.

Camille Muffat, Agnel’s teammate at Olympique Nice Natation, is entered in the 100, 200, and 400 freestyle. While she enters with the top times this year in the 100 and 200 she faces stiff competition from swimmers such as Coralie Balmy, especially in the 400 as Balmy holds this year’s top time if only slightly.

A swimmer to really watch out for in this meet will be Charlotte Bonnet. She comes from the same club as Agnel and Muffat and is only 18 years old. She competed in the 100 free in London as well and was a bronze medalist on France’s 4×200 freestyle relay. She is entered in the 100 and 200 freestyle.

2012 Olympic sprint king Florent Manadou is entered in all four sprint events. He is rather versatile if not in distance than in strokes. He was 5^th in the 50 fly in Shanghai in 2011 and holds either the 1^st or 2^nd best times in each sprint event in France this year. His competitors in 50 free include Olympic veterans Frederick Bousquet and Amaury Leveaux.

France’s premier backstroker, Camille Lacourt, is entered entered in all of the backstroke events. To win, however, he’ll need to get past the man he shared a world championship title with in the 100 back at 2011’s world championships in Shanghai, Jeremy Stravius.

Looking back at their success at London where France was country with the third most medals behind China and the United States, it should be an interesting meet to watch!