2024 Mare Nostrum Canet: Day 2 Prelims Features Honda’s 1:56.25 200 Fly

2024 MARE NOSTRUM – CANET-EN-ROUSSILLON

• Saturday, May 25th & Sunday, May 26th
• Prelims at 9am local (3am ET)/Finals at 5:30pm local (11:30am ET)
• Canet, France
• LCM (50m)
• Olympic Qualifying Event
• Meet Central
• Entries
• Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Recap
• Live Results
• Livestream

The second and final day of the 2024 Mare Nostrum Tour stop in Canet got underway this morning with swimmers setting themselves up for tonight’s main event. As with yesterday, nothing crazy happened in the prelims with many of the same stars who raced on day one back in the water to stake their claim on additional hardware.

Frenchman Maxime Grousset was one such swimmer, with the 25-year-old already collecting 50m free gold and 100m fly silver last night.

Grousset took on the men’s 100m free this morning where he notched a time of 48.80 as the sole sub-49-second swimmer in the field.

Behind him was Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto, clocking 49.25 in his attempt to double up on his 200m free victory from night 1.

Dylan Carter (49.55) of Trinidad & Tobago and Jacob Whittle of Great Britain (49.56) will also be among those vying for podium spots in tonight’s final.

For the women’s 100m free, it was France’s Beryl Gastaldello who secured lane 4, punching a morning result of 53.73.

Gastaldello opened in 26.17 and closed in 27.56 to crush the 3rd-fastest time of her career, one which boasts a personal best of 53.40 from December 2020.

Hong Kong’s Olympic medalist Siobhan Haughey has Gasteldello in her sights, however, touching only .04 behind in 53.77 as the 2nd seed. Haughey already put on a show last night, winning the women’s 100m breast and the 200m free.

Dutch world champion in this event, Marrit Steenbergen and Hungarian dynamo Nikolett Padar also landed among the top 8.

Reigning world champion Tomoru Honda displayed his butterfly prowess yet again, dominating the 200m distance in a solid morning outing of 1:56.25.

That rendered him a nearly 2-second advantage over the next-closest competitor Hector Ruvalcaba of Mexico who notched 1:58.04.

Honda’s teammate and fellow 2024 Olympic qualifier Genki Terakado earned the 4th seed in 1:58.63 after mildly upsetting Grousset in the 100m fly last night. South Africa’s Chad Le Clos lurks as the 6th-seeded athlete in 2:00.34.

Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of the host nation logged a morning swim of 54.82 to carry a small lead into tonight’s men’s 100m back final.

Flanking him will be Adam Jaszo of Hungary who turned in 54.91 while India’s Srihari Nataraj will be on the other side attempting to improve upon his 55.07 morning result.

Canadian Ingrid Wilm holds the pole position in the women’s 100m back after hitting 1:00.74. Dutch maestro Kira Toussaint (1:00.83) and Sweden’s Louise Hansson (1:00.93) are right in the mix, as is France’s Mary-Ambre Moluh (1:00.94)

Additional Top Seeds

• The men’s 50m breast saw Taku Taniguchi clock a time of 27.97 to earn the top slot while the women’s pack was led by Sweden’s Sophie Hansson in 30.61.
• Nyls Korstanje was too quick to catch in this morning’s heats of the men’s 50m fly, with the Dutchman touching in 23.40 to lead Carter (23.46) and Szebasztian Szabo of Hungary (23.66). Grousset logged 23.95 as the 5th seed and world record holder Andrii Govorov of Ukraine 6th in 23.98.
• Sans Sarah Sjostrom, countrywoman Sara Junevik scored a time of 25.93 to narrowly take the 50m fly top seed over France’s World Championships silver medalist Melanie Henique who hit 23.94. Hansson was next in 26.11 to make it a tight affair for this evening.
• Mexico’s Maria Mata Cocco nabbed the top spot in the women’s 200m fly, courtesy of her 2:11.27 prelims result.
• Just one man dipped under the 2:10 threshold in this morning’s 200m breast, as Japan’s Ippei Watanabe stopped the clock in 2:09.38. Watanabe ranks #1 in the world this season due to the 2:06.94 he threw down for gold and Paris qualification at March’s Japanese Olympic Trials.
• 17-year-old Mio Narita is sharpening her 400m IM skills ahead of the Paris Games, nabbing the #1 seed this morning in 4:54.96.
• Letitia Sim of Singapore took charge of the women’s 200m breast heats with a result of 2:28.52. Spain’s Jessica Vall was the only other swimmer under the 2:30 barrier thus far, producing 2:28.61 as the 2nd seed.
• Last night’s 1500m freestyle gold medalist, Anastasia Kirpichnikova of France, got it done to capture lane 4 in the women’s 400m free. She put up 4:13.17 while Japan’s Waka Kobori was a hair behind in 4:13.37 to make a run at gold in tonight’s main event.