First-Time Champions, Plus Manaudou, Muffat, Highlight Last Day of French Championships in Chartres

2014 French Long Course National Championships

Meet previews Part One and Part Two
Day One recapDay Two recapDay Three recapDay Four recapDay Five recap

 

Day Six: Sunday, April 13

Overall, the 2014 French championship was slightly disappointing. It wasn’t particularly fast -no (senior) national records were set- and it highlighted the growing disparity between the superstars and everyone else, as seen in the time differential between first and tenth in most events. Moreover, the fact that only three junior swimmers broke age group records makes one wonder about the depth of the pipeline.

In an effort to give more of its swimmers the opportunity to experience international competition the Federation doubled the number of athletes it would select to its national team roster. That meant as long as they met the 2014 European Championships time standards, the top four men and women would have the chance to represent France in Berlin. And yet, although the door was opened much wider this year, only a few extras made it through, especially on the women’s side. Indeed, more than two women qualified in only six of seventeen events. The men took better advantage of the situation, but they still have seven events with only two qualifiers, and in the IMs only 1 of eight potential spots was taken.

But to be fair, the Berlin qualifying standards were fairly generous so many of the elite swimmers swam through this meet, saving their taper for the summer. Jérémy Stravius wasn’t even shaved. We should see a much faster contingent from the Hexagon in Berlin.

Men’s 50 breast: Marseille’s Florent Manaudou accomplished what he set out to do in Chartres: four victories, four qualifications for Berlin. He picked up his final win with the 50 breast. Manaudou touched in 27.66, a new personal best, just .04 ahead of Marseille teammate and defending champion Giacomo Perez Dortona. The pair were the only two under the Berlin cut, as third-place finisher Eddie Moueddene of Amiens went 28.61.

Women’s 50 back: Béryl Gastadello of Marseille led a quartet of Berlin qualifiers in the 50 back. Her 28.73 was a personal best for the first-time French champion. Mathilde Cini of Valence took second in 28.83. Antibes teammates Camille Gheorghiu (28.95) and Justine Ress (29.26) both went best times and made it onto the Berlin roster.

Men’s 100 fly: Mehdy Metella of Marseille won in first French national crown with 52.56, which is just a tick slower than his second-place finish in 2013. Runner-up Jérémy Stravius of Amiens went 52.78, .74 slower than his winning time from 2013. Both men qualified for Berlin, but they were the only ones. Bronze went to Marseille’s Camille Lacourt whose 53.64 missed the cutoff by .12.

Women’s 400 free: Camille Muffat of Nice picked up her fourth win of the five events (50-100-200-400 free, 100 fly) she contested in Chartres with a 4:07.14. Coralie Balmy of Mulhouse took second in 4:08.90. Both were about 5 seconds off their seed times, but should be much faster in Berlin. Third went to Hungary’s Evelyn Verraszto in 4:15.09. Ophélie-Cyrielle Etienne of Lille finished fourth, adding 8 and missing the Euro qualification by 3 seconds.

Women’s 200 breast: The top three repeated their 2013 finish in exactly the same order and with almost the exact same times: Coralie Dobral of Montauban successfully defended her title, finishing .01 under the Euro qualifying standard of 2:30.50. Montpellier’s Fanny Deberghes was second (2:30.80), while Laura Paquit of Tarbes took third (2:32.76).

Men’s 200 back: The final event of the meet put two more names on the Berlin roster. Eric Ress of Antibes and Indiana University won his first French national championship in 1:58.61. 2013 champion Benjamin Stasiulis of Marseille took second in 2:00.00. Florian Joly of Toulouse went a personal best 2:01.44 but missed the Euro cutoff by .86.

 

French Qualifiers for 2014 European Championships in Berlin

Women W1 W2 W3 W4 Men M1 M2 M3 M4
50m free 25.54 Anna Santamans Camille Muffat N/A N/A 22.74 Florent Manaudou Nosy Pelagie Fabien Gilot Clément Mignon
100m free 55.41 Camille Muffat Charlotte Bonnet Anna Santamans Cloé Hache 49.96 Florent Manaudou Mehdy Metella Fabien Gilot Grégory Mallet
200m free 2:00.58 Camille Muffat Charlotte Bonnet Coralie Balmy Cloé Hache 1:49.54 Yannick Agnel Grégory Mallet Lorys Bourelly Clément Mignon
400m free 4:12.77 Camille Muffat Coralie Balmy N/A N/A 3:53.02 Yannick Agnel Anthony Pannier Damien Joly Joris Bouchaut
800m free 8:36.94 Coralie Balmy N/A N/A N/A 8:04.22 Anthony Pannier Joris Bouchaut Axel Reymond Damien Joly
1500m free 16:42.76 Morgane Rothon Coralie Codevelle Aurélie Muller Julie Berthier 15:18.05 Joris Bouchaut Damien Joly N/A N/A
50m back 29.31 Béryl Gastaldello Mathilde Cini Camille Gheorghiu Justine Ress 26.05 Camille Lacourt Jérémy Stravius Eric Ress Benjamin Stasiulis
100m back 1:02.16 Cloé Credeville N/A N/A N/A 55.24 Camille Lacourt Jérémy Stravius Benjamin Stasiulis N/A
200m back 2:14.01 Cloé Credeville Fantine Lesaffre N/A N/A 2:00.58 Eric Ress Benjamin Stasiulis N/A N/A
50m breast 32.20 Coralie Dobral N/A N/A N/A 28.36 Florent Manaudou Giacomo Perez Dortona N/A N/A
100m breast 1:09.52 Claire Polit Charlotte Bonnet N/A N/A 1:02.02 Giacomo Perez Dortona Thomas Dahlia Quentin Coton N/A
200m breast 2:30.50 Coralie Dobral N/A N/A N/A 2:13.76 Thomas Dahlia Quentin Coton N/A N/A
50m fly 27.26 Mélanie Henique Marie Wattel Béryl Gastaldello Anna Santamans 24.30 Florent Manaudou Mehdy Metella Fabien Gilot Yoris Grandjean
100m fly 1:00.39 Camille Muffat Marie Wattel Mélanie Henique N/A 53.52 Mehdy Metella Jérémy Stravius N/A N/A
200m fly 2:13.69 Lara Grangeon Marie Wattel N/A N/A 2:00.03 Jordan Coehlo Jérémy Stravius Thomas Vilaceca Paul Lemaire
200m IM 2:16.09 Charlotte Bonnet Lara Grangeon N/A N/A 2:02.08 N/A N/A N/A N/A
400m IM 4:46.92 Lara Grangeon Charlotte Bonnet N/A N/A 4:21.34 Quentin Coton N/A N/A N/A

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Andrew Mullen
9 years ago

Great picture Sandy Bole!!!!!

Coach
9 years ago

Bobo, the Mesa Grand Prix next week will keep us entertained though! And will give us a preview for August! Will Phelps return? Will Lochte vs. phelps be renewed? Will Schmitt regain form and challenge Franklin in 200 free / Ledecky in 400 free? Who will be the dominant sprint freestylers – Jones/Feigen/or Adrian? Coughlin/Romano/Neal/Manuel/Geer? Who will step up? Is dana vollmer swimming? Will Chase Kalisz / Kevin Cordes / Jack Conger / Ryan Murphy / etc. improve in LCM? These are the questions I want answered. Perhaps we will know more in Mesa.

bobo gigi
9 years ago

Ok. Next big national championships are in USA in . . . August! 😥
We must be patient.

Rafael
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

Bobo on 2 weeks we have Brazilian Trials..

Start list released:

http://www.cbdaweb.org.br/cbda/natacao/evento/19/2014/trofeu-maria-lenk/relatorios

bobo gigi
Reply to  Rafael
9 years ago

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. 😳

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

I also forgot the Chinese championships in May and the Russian championships in June.

bobo gigi
9 years ago

I agree with your introduction.
It was a pretty disappointing meet. I will even say a pretty boring meet.
The overall meet was slow.
The only best time in the world has been Camille Lacourt in the 50 back.
The national team director didn’t look worried. He said it was planned. Most of the big names came back from a big training period and were untapered this week.
I’m not worried about the big 5 (Agnel, Manaudou, Muffat, Lacourt, Stravius).
I’m sure they will swim much faster next summer.
But we must open the eyes.
My only rays of hope for the future have been the young Dencausse and Lesparre on breaststroke,… Read more »

CoachGB
9 years ago

The above comment may sound like one persons opinion but ie is out there among a number of coaches especially in earlier years.
The last comment is something that swimming in the US will have to face if they ever put the 50’s in the Olympics.the US has always filled the events in the program at the games when it was 3 or now 2 per event. Tradition was ti fill the event and not base it on the swimmers time relative to the games. All other countries seldom have filled a team and now institute standards tougher then the FINA ones so they are going to buy in to the 50’s before the US.When it happens the US… Read more »

weirdo
9 years ago

A couple reasons I don’t like 50’s.
*Too many hanger-ons, who don’t have to train much, swim the 50’s.
*For the Olympic and World champ teams, you can only have 26 male/females max so if you take 50 swimmers, then you take fewer ‘real’ swimmers.

mcgillrocks
Reply to  weirdo
9 years ago

Another thing is that 50s are sort of a way to rack up medals more easily because if you have feel for the water, strength and quick twitch you don’t really need to dedicate your time to a stroke.

Almost every elite 50 swimmer does at least two fifties. Schoeman does 50 free, 50 fly very well in LC and the 50 br in sc. Florent won the 50 free, breast and fly here at Trials. Cielo is world champ in both the 50 fly and 50 free. Morozov is pretty elite in every 50 except for the fly.

It’s sort of a pretty easy event to add to your schedule to get another medal. By comparison, if… Read more »

McGillrocks
Reply to  mcgillrocks
9 years ago

Just some stats to point this out:

From 2013 men in the 50 free top 10, 5 were ranked in the top 10 of another 50 (and Vlad was ranked 11th and 12th in two other 50s)

Zero of them top 10 100 freestylers were ranked top 10 in anything else (Vlad was 13th in back, being the closest I found)

Two of the top 10 200 freestylers were ranked in the top 10: Hagino and Lochte

Rafael
Reply to  McGillrocks
9 years ago

But usually many of the top 10 100 freestyler were among top 10 50.. last year cielo was not swimming

But usually you have Cielo Adrian Magnussen at least on both top 10..

9 years ago

Why do the Americans continue to ignore the 50 back, breast and fly?. Our swimmers don’t swim them in college and they seem to be an afterthought.

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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