2024 FRENCH ELITE SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, October 31st – Sunday, November 3rd
- Montpellier, France
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
Day 3 of the 2024 French Elite Short Course Championships saw the first national records of the competition go down.
Racing in the final of the women’s 100m backstroke, 29-year-old Beryl Gastaldello fired off a new French standard of 56.07 to take the gold.
Gastaldello finished exactly one second ahead of the pack with Pauline Mahieu next to the wall in 57.07 followed by Analia Pigree who touched in 57.77.
Gastaldello opened in 27.77 and closed in 28.80 to establish the best time of her career. Entering these championships, Gastaldello’s PB and national record stood at the 56.18 put up at this same meet last year.
Additional winners included Maxime Grousset in the men’s 50m fly, reaping gold in 22.50. That was within half a second of his lifetime best and French record of 22.06 notched at the 2023 European Championships.
Lucie Vasquez was the top women’s 200m breaststroker, stopping the clock at 2:25.06.
That gave her a narrow victory ahead of Rosalie Abel-Thiebaut who turned in a time of just .12 behind in 2:26.18.
Vasquez is scheduled to race for Arizona State University beginning in the spring of 2025.
Roman Fuchs earned gold in the men’s 200m free, punching a result of 1:43.16 to beat the field by over 2 seconds. Fuchs remains France’s 4th-fastest man in history, owning a career-quickest time of 1:42.16 from last year.
Finally, Florine Gaspard got the job done in the women’s 50m free, registering 23.99 as the winner.
Representing Belgium, 22-year-old Gaspard’s outing ripped a new national record as she held off runners-up Pigree and Melanie Henique. The former hit 24.08 for silver, and the latter logged 24.16 for bronze.
As for Gaspard, she already nailed a new national mark in the heats with a swim of 24.39 before she hacked off another .40 for her first-ever foray under the 24-second barrier.
The former Belgian national record stood at the 24.77 Roos Vanotterdijk established just last month.
