Day two of the French short course nationals kicked off in Montpellier, France today and saw with it the downfall of multiple national records including one by Florent Manaudou.
The men’s 800m freestyle event started the night and with it brought a gold medal for Anthony Pannier. Pannier touched the wall in 7:39.51 to take home the gold and beat out Joris Bouchaut who grabbed the silver in 7:43.35. Fifth place finisher Nicoles D’Oriano swam a 7:53.04 to set a new age-group record in the event in the 17-year-0ld age-group category.
The women’s 50m fly final took to the water next. Mélanie Henique absolutely destroyed her competition with a huge win, touching in at 25.33 to set a new French national record. Henique broke the record by a slim margin as the previous record of 25.39 was just slightly slower. Finishing second well behind Henique was Marie Wattel in 26.26.
After finishing first in the 50 freestyle last night Florent Manaudou charged to another win, taking gold in the 50 backstroke over French backstroke star Camille Lacourt. Manaudou touched first in 22.98 ahead of Lacourt who grabbed the silver in 23.19. That time for Manaudou is a new French national record, breaking the previous mark set by Jeremy Stravius in 2013. Finishing third was Jordan Coelho who clocked in at 24.35 well behind the two leaders.
Fanny Lecluyse of Belgium came home with a win in the women’s 200m breaststroke final swimming a 2:21.07 to claim gold. That time broke her previous national record of 2:21.14 that she set at the short course European Championships in 2011. Finishing second behind her was Fanny Deberghes in 2:24.77 followed by Lara Grangeon at 2:25.58.
The men’s 400m IM final went to Théo Fuchs in 4:11.06. The race was ridiculously close as it came down to the final touch where Jeremy Desplanches was right with him, however was out-touched by the smallest of margins leaving Desplanches to settle for silver in 4:11.07. Rounding out the top three was Ganesh Pedurand in 4:13.55.
Hungary’s Evelyn Verraszto took the title in the women’s 100m IM taking down Charlotte Bonnet in the process. Verraszto touched in at 59.29 to take the gold over Bonnet who finished second, however Bonnet’s time of 59.97 was good to break the previous French National record by just one one-hundredth of a second.
It what can only be described as one of the most anticipated events of the competition, Mehdy Metella, Clément Mignon, and Yannick Agnel all faced off in the men’s 100m freestyle final. Coming out on top was rising star Metella who swam a 46.69 for the win. Finishing in second was Mignon ahead of Agnel, clocking in at 46.76 just behind Mignon. Agnel finished well behind the two leaders in 47.60.
The night ended with the women’s 800m freestyle, an event that went to Dutch swimmer Sharon Van Rouwendaal. Rouwendaal won the event comfortably over Lara Grangeon -who already had a bronze medal from the 200m breaststroke final earlier tonight- in 8:17.44. Grangeon touched in for silver in 8:25.73 with Coralie Codevelle finishing third in 8:29.16.
For full meet results click here.
Does anyone know how tapered he is for this? If he’s just coming off a block of training and swimming rested but not tapered as such then the backstroke time is incredibly impressive.
He’s looking at the following WRs in Doha potentially:
100 Fr
100 IM
50 Back?
50 Free?
I really want to see him race Cielo in the 50 free. That’s going to be an amazing race, hopefully with one of them touching in under 20.3!
BoBo, has manadou already.qualified for the 100free at world’ then and that’s why he focused on the 50bk?
The French roster has been known for a few weeks now.
And Manaudou didn’t need to swim the 100 free this week.
Here’s the small roster sent to Doha.
http://www.ffnatation.fr/webffn/calendrier_det.php?idnum=4088
And I laugh every time I watch that photo of Manaudou. 😆
He’s so huge! 😯
Creatine has been very efficient!
Unfortunately Mr Manaudou has decided to swim only the 100 free prelims. All the focus is on Doha. He will be in great shape there and perhaps ready for a world record.
3 French national records today. Manaudou in the men’s 50 back in 22.98, Hénique in the women’s 50 fly in 25.33 and Bonnet in the women’s 100 IM in 59.97.
Lacourt is back! 23.19 in the 50 back for the second place. Very close to his PB of 23.16. After all his health problems! I’m very impressed.
Not a crazy fast men’s 100 free but it’s always interesting to see 2 guys under 47. Metella and Mignon improve every year and will peak in Rio… Read more »
He’s going to break the 100m IM world record very soon I think