2021 Mare Nostrum Monaco – Day 2 Finals Live Recap

2021 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – MONACO

• Saturday, May 29th & Sunday, May 30th
• Swimming Pool Prince Albert II
• LCM (50m)
• Heats at 9 am local/finals at 5 pm local
• Entries
• Results
• Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims
• Day 1 Finals
• Day 2 Prelims

Chad le Clos will open up this evening’s finals session in the men’s 100 fly and after a relaxed morning swim, is favourite to take the first win of the session on day two in Monaco.

We’ll also see Katinka Hosszu in action in a number of events including the 200 IM and 100 back. The Iron Lady has a packed schedule this weekend and is getting plenty of race practice in ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Dutch national record holder Kira Toussaint dominated the prelims of the women’s 100 back and will be aiming to take down her morning swim time of 59.93.

Men’s 100 Fly

Chad le Clos brought the heat here to take the win in the 100 fly with a time of 52.45. The 29-year-old out-touched Jeremy Desplanches (52.63). of Switzerland who entered this final as top seed.

Le Clos’s winning time here is over two seconds slower than the winning time from the just-completed European Championships. There, Kristof Milak of Hungary bested the rest of the field, winning in 50.18. Le Clos does, however, hold the championship Monaco record which he set back in 2016 (51.58).

Desplanches was just off his lifetime best time of 52.28 with that swim. In third was the Israeli national record holder in this event, Tomer Frankel, who has a best time of 51.92.

Women’s 200 Fly

A new Mexican national record also delivered a win for Maria Mata Cocco in the 200 fly as she touched the wall in 2:09.57. That takes down the previous national best time of 2:10.15 which was set by Rita Medrano in 2012.

A battle for second saw Katinka Hosszu and Lilou Ressencourt of France racing to get their hand on the wall first. It was Ressencourt who got there in the end, stopping the clock in a time of 2:12.16 to beat out Hosszu who came third with 2:12.77. Ressencourt’s best stands at 2:11.88 which she set while racing in Marselli earlier this year.

The European record in this event belongs to Hosszu (2:04.27) and was set back in 2009.

Men’s 200 Back

The only man to break the two-minute barrier was winner of the 200 back, Frenchman Christophe Brun. The youngster touched in 1:59.79, taking a chunk off his prelims time of 2:03.21. He was also just off his personal best time of 1:59.10 which he set in March this year.

Omar Pinzon, who came second in the 100 back yesterday, took second here in 2:01.62. The Colombian now has two top-three finishes under his belt from the Monaco leg of the event.

In third was Jeremy Desplanches 2:01.86) who has a very tight turnaround to prepare for this race after competing earlier in the 100 fly.

Women’s 100 Back

Fresh from her European Championships bid, Kira Toussaint swam to a win in the 100 back here in Monaco with a time of 59.41 – the only swimmer in the field to break the minute mark.

The betters her prelims swim by roughly half a second and also comes within touching distance of her finals time from Europeans (59.32).

Behind her was Finland’s Mimosa Jallow in 1:00.48 who was just 0.20 off her personal best in this event. Third went to Hosszu who took nearly a second off her morning swim time of 1:02.84 here with 1:02.00.

Men’s 100 Breast

Youngster Valentin Bayer came out on top in the men’s 100 breast and won with a time of 1:01.46. The Austrian has a best time of 1:00.27 which he set last July.

Miguel de Lara Ojeda took second in 1:01.91 while joint third place went to Adnane Beji and Denis Petrashov who both touched in 1:01.96.

Of note, Dutch national record holder in this event Arno Kamminga opted not to swim the 100 breast here in Monaco.

Women’s 200 Breast

Top seed in this event, Yuliya Efimova, took the win in the final of the 200 breast with a time of 2:25.61. That time is considerably quicker than her prelims mark of 2:30.61, though it’s off her European bronze-medal winning time of 2:22.16 which she did last week.

In second was Byanca Rodriguez Villanueva who was close behind with 2:26.93 which sits 1.5 seconds off the Mexican national record of 2:25.54. Efimova and Villanueva finished 1-2 in the 100m breast yesterday as well.

Third went to Fantine Lesaffre (2:28.53) who yesterday won the 200 backstroke.

Men’s 200 Free

Winner of the men’s 200 free was Estonia’s Kregor Zirk who last week finished joint 10th overall in this event at the European Aquatics Championships. He improved on last week’s time (1:47.16) by going 1:47.01 here in Monaco.

Just behind him was Mexican national record holder Jorge Iga Cesar who touched in 1:47.51. He was just off his 2019 record mark which stands at 1:47.14.

In third was Jordan Pothain who entered the final as top seed. He was slightly off his morning swim time of 1:48.02 here with 1:48.32.

Women’s 100 Free

Winner of the 200 free, Charlotte Bonnet, once again came out on top here in Monaco – this time in the 100 free. Her time of 54.12 was the only sub-55 second time in the field.

Next to her was Spaniard Lidon Munoz who edged down her earlier swim time to touch in 55.28. The Hungarian Evelyn Verraszto was third in 55.82 after she also came third in the 200 free on day one of competition.

Women’s 200 IM

A two-woman field on Katinka Hosszu and Fantine Lesaffre saw the former coming out on top with 2:13.14. The Iron Lady finished in third place overall at the European Championships with a time of 2:10.12.

As for Lesaffre, she downed her prelims swim by almost four full seconds. Her best time clocks in at 2:11.70 from April 2019.

Skins Races

A number of skins-like races are also taking place in Monaco, with the likes of Kira Toussaint, Pernille Blume, Melanie Henique, Bruno Fratus and Florent Manaudou in action.

They don’t follow the traditional skins format and instead take place over two days: two rounds on day one, two rounds on day two.

Women’s 50 Back Skins

Kira Toussaint continued her dominating form in the third round of the 50 back skins event, touching first in a time of 28.11. That was slightly off her previous round mark of 27.64, though still enough to put her top of the pile ahead of the final.

She then went on to complete her clean sweep in this event and won in 27.67 ahead of Austria’s Caroline Pilhatsch. Toussaint’s best time in this event stands at 27.10. She is the current world record holder in the short course 50 back with a time of 25.60.

Men’s 50 Free Skins

Sprinting pedigree Bruno Fratus and Florent Manaudou made up 2 of the 4 men in the penultimate round of the men’s 50 free skins, with the former clocking 21.87 and the latter 22.03.

Manaudou failed to progress, however, as he finished third overall. It was then down to Dutchman Thom De Boer, who led the pack ahead of the final round after a speedy 21.78, and Fratus to go head-to-head in the final swim.

The Dutchman had a steller final swim, taking down his own previous national record mark of 21.74 to beat Fratus and take the win.

His time of 21.62 slots him in as tied for #3 in the world this season for this event and also betters his time from Europeans where he finished 4th overall (21.80).

Women’s 50 Free Skins

After posting a seriously fast time in this event at Europeans (one that was also faster than her winning time from Rio), defending Olympic Champion Pernille Blume led the field in the women’s 50 free with 24.40.

She was closely followed by Melanie Henique who touched in 24.74.

Blume bettered her time yet again and stopped the clock in 24.34. That doesn’t beat her best time this season on 24.06, which also doubles up as the world #2 time this season.