2023 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, June 11th – Friday, June 16th
- Rennes, France
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- FFN Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap / Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap / Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap / Day 3 Finals Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap / Day 4 Finals Recap
- Day 5 Prelims Recap / Day 5 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Live Stream
We entered the final day of competition of the 2023 French Elite Championships where swimmers are vying for spots on the nation’s roster for next month’s World Championships.
The men’s 100m fly was among the morning’s events and we already reported that 21-year-old Leon Marchand dropped this sixth and final event from his competition lineup.
Marchand already claimed titles here in the 200m breast, 200m fly, 200m free, 200m IM and 400m IM, qualifying for Fukuoka in each.
In Marchand’s absence, it was Maxime Grousset who topped the heats, punching a time of 51.71 as the top seed.
Already for Grousset, that’s a new personal best, slicing .01 off of his previous PB of 51.72 nabbed at the Giant Open this past March. Behind Grousset was Stanislas Huille who earned the 2nd seed in 52.47 while Charles Rihoux placed 3rd in 52.49.
Of note, Olympian Mehdy Metella rebounded from a 6th place finish in the B-Final of the men’s 50m fly to snag the 6th seed in this 1fly in 53.11.
The women’s 400m IM saw Fantine Lesaffre land lane 4 in a time of 4:43.34 while Cyrielle Duhamel joined her as the only other racer under 4:53 this morning.
28-year-old Lesaffre owns the national record in this event with the 4:34.17 notched at the 2018 European Championships. That rendered her the gold medalist there in Glasgow nearly 5 years ago.
Belgium’s Florine Gaspard got it done to claim the women’s 50m breast top seed, punching a morning time of 30.75. That’s well on her way to coming within reach of her own national record. That stands at the 30.53 logged just this past April.
Charlotte Bonnet represented the swiftest French athlete in the women’s 50m breast heats, with the 28-year-old clocking a new national record in 30.82.
Bonnet’s time overtook the supersuited French standard of 30.96 Sophie de Ronchi notched at the 2009 French Championships. Look for a follow-up post on Bonnet’s record-setting swim.
Additional top seeds included Mewen Tomac hitting 25.08 as the swiftest 50m backstroke of the heats while Russian Anna Egorova claimed the 200m free pole position in 1:59.83.
In that latter event, Marie Wattel claimed the quickest time of the French competitors, hitting 2:00.59. The women’s 200m back gold medalist here, Emma Terebo, dropped the event.
