Golden Tour Finals Day 1: Manaudou World’s New Number One

Today’s Finals session of the 2015 Golden Tour meet in Nice, France contained some positively stacked fields in the men’s and women’s 50m freestyle, 800m/1500m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, and 100m butterfly events.  France would take home the most top-of-the-podium finishes across both genders with a total of five event wins, while Team Hungary, by way of a one Iron Lady, would snag three gold medals for their efforts.

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Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu would end the day with three gold medals to add to her vault, as well as one silver as she stood on the podium in four out her five events.  With Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom choosing to scratch the 50m freestyle finals, Hosszu capitalized on her new number one seeding and powered her way to the wall in 25.32 for gold. France’s Anna Santamans took home silver in 25.49, while Sweden’s Michelle Coleman earned bronze in a time of 25.68.  Hosszu now sits tenth in the world rankings in this event, directly behind Sjostrom’s time of 25.27 from prelims.

After clocking the 7th fastest women’s 800m freestyle in the world last week in Antwerp, Hosszu captured the event title again in Nice, registering a comfortable 8:45.84 to beat the competition by about six seconds.  France’s Alizee Morel finished in second place in 8:52.10, while Italy’s Susanna Negi touched narrowly behind in 8:52.19.

To make it three for three in event wins, Hosszu next powered to the top of the women’s 200m backstroke podium, touching the wall three seconds ahead of the rest of the field.  2:10.09 was Hosszu’s time from today, which now ties Elizabeth Beisel from the Arena Pro Series Swim – Austin earlier this month.  Ukrainian Daryna Zevina earned the runner-up spot in 2:13.09 and Hosszu’s countrymate from Hungary, Evelin Verraszto, rounded out the top three in 2:14.03.

The women’s 100m breaststroke race is where Hosszu faded a bit, coming in sixth place in a time of 1:11.87.  That’s still a quality time for this superwoman of a swimmer, as her personal best is listed just slightly faster;  1:11.32 at last year’s Hungarian Championships.  For the top three spots, two of them were captured by France, as Charlotte Bonnet touched first in 1:10.07, followed by Adline Martin in 1:10.55.  Stina Gardell from Sweden was the only other swimmer to dip under the 1:11-mark, with her third-place time of 1:10.79.

Hosszu was immediately back on the podium, at least in the silver medal spot, with her runner-up 100m butterfly time of 1:00.16.  France’s Marie Wattel was the winner tonight representing the only swimmer to crack the minute mark – 59.47.  After Hosszu in second, Sweden’s Stina Gardell racked up another third place spot in 1:00.52 to go along with her bronze from the 100m breaststroke.  Of tonight’s women butterflyers, only Wattel’s winning time was fast enough to crack the top 20 times thus far this year, coming in 14th in the world standings.

Unlike the women today, the men’s competition did not see a singular dominant figure, but Frenchman Florent Manaudou certainly made a world-topping statement with his first event of the meet.  Manaudou’s scorching 21.89 50m freestyle not only beat today’s field by almost an entire second, it also slid him into the world’s number-one ranked time by just two one-hundredths.  Brazils’ Bruno Fratus’ 21.91 from the Arena Pro Swim Series – Austin is now bumped to second in the world.  Jeremy Stravius, also from France, finished in the number two spot today in 22.74, followed closely by Germany’s Steffen Deibler, who touched in 22.94 for third.  Eyes on Australia tomorrow to see how the BHP Billiton competitors respond to Manaudou‘s ferocity.

Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Romanchuk topped the men’s 1500m freestyle in his time of 14:58.49, which rockets him to the number-one-ranked position in the world by more than 15 seconds.  Romanchuk is the first swimmer to break the 15-minute barrier thus far this year.  France was able to nab the second and third place finishes in the event today, with Damien Joly and Anthony Pannier clocking times of 15:18.31 and 15:27.76, respectively.

Where Deibler scratched the podium surface with his bronze in the 50m free, Christian Diener broke it wide open for Germany with his commanding win in the men’s 200m backstroke.  1:58.82 was Diener’s swift time today, which now places him fifth in the world rankings, just ahead of Australia’s Mitch Larkin.  The next closest competitor was France’s Benjamin Stasiulis who finished in 2:01.36, while German teammate Yannick Lebherz came in third with his time of 2:01.87.

France caught another gold medal in the men’s 100m breaststroke, as Giacomo Perez Dortona swam away with the fastest time of the day in 1:01.75, the fifth-fastest time in the world thus far for 2015.  Sweden’s Erik Perrson picked up second place in 1:02.58 and Hendrik Feldwehr earned another medal for the Germans with his third-place time of 1:02.70.

Mehdy Metella closed out the meet with another gold for France, winning the men’s 100m butterfly in 52.86. Simon Sjodin from Sweden was able to slide into second place with 53.76, while Jordan Coelho earned France a bronze with his time of 54.20.

Competition continues tomorrow with prelims beginning at 8 am local time.