2018 Euros Day 1: Lesaffre Produces Surprise 400m IM French Record

Yui Ohashi

2018 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Britain’s Adam Peaty stole the prelims show on day 1 in Glasgow, throwing down the 7th fastest 100m breaststroke time ever (57.89), but there was another sneaky performance that caught people’s attention as well.

Competing in the women’s 400m IM prelims this morning, French racer Fantine Lesaffre produced a big personal best mark ofย 4:36.16 en route to claiming the top seed. That prelims outing hacked well over 2 seconds off of the 23-year-old’s previous personal best of 4:38.88 established back in 2016. Beating the field this morning, Lesaffre also notched a new French national record, overtaking the previous mark of Lara Grangeon of 4:36.61.

Splits for Lesaffre’s 4:36.16 effort are below:

Lesaffreย has one senior-level medal under her belt in the form of a bronze in this same event at the 2017 Short Course European Championships in Copenhagen. Her time this morning now ranks her 9th in the world, but she’ll need to throw down another big performance to stave off the likes of Italy’s Ilaria Cusinato and Great Britain’s Aimee Willmott.

2017-2018 LCM WOMEN 400 IM

YuiJPN
OHASHI
04/08
4.30.82
2Fantine
LESAFFRE
FRA4.34.1708/03
3Ilaria
CUSINATO
ITA4.34.6506/30
4Ally
McHUGH
USA4.34.8007/27
5Aimee
WILLMOTT
GBR4.34.9004/05
6Brooke
FORDE
SA4.35.0907/27
7Hannah
MILEY
GBR4.35.1604/05
8Melanie
MARGALIS
USA4.35.5007/27
9Leah
SMITH
USA4.35.6807/27
10Sakiko
SHIMIZU
JPN4.36.2708/09
View Top 26»
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Swimmer
5 years ago

4.34.1 for gold!!

bobo gigi
5 years ago

She said in interview that she was surprised by the time and that the goal was not to go so fast. She knows that her main rivals saved the best for the final but she believes that a medal is possible and why not the gold.
We never know. With a MP suit anything is possible! ๐Ÿ™‚

Brownish
5 years ago

Without Hosszu, itโ€™s pretty easy.

bobo gigi
Reply to  Brownish
5 years ago

What is easy?

Brownish
Reply to  bobo gigi
5 years ago

To win the 400 IM. The best is 10 seconds after Hosszu. Forget it.

bobo gigi
Reply to  Brownish
5 years ago

Easier yes. Easy not. And it’s not their fault if Hosszu doesn’t feel enough strong this year to swim the 400 IM.

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
5 years ago

Easy no.

Peter
5 years ago

4:36 with a 1:06 free split wow

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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