The third evening of the French National Championships was highlighted by Laure Manaudou breaking her own National Record in the 50 backstroke posting a time of 27.11. Her previous mark of 27.13 was set at the European Championships in 2007.
Camille Muffat who broke the 800 freestyle world record on Friday captured the 400 freestyle in a time of 3:59.38, which could be seen as a disappointment considering that the final 400 meters in her 800 was swum in a time of 4:00.21 and is almost five seconds slower than the French record of 3:54.93 which Muffat set in October.
The Men’s 1500 freestyle was won by Anthony Pannier in a French Championship Record of 14:38.32. The time currently ranks him first in the world overtaking Michael Klueh of the United States who posted a time of 14:38.64 in Tokyo earlier this month.
Possibly the most exciting race of the evening was the Men’s 100 Back where Jeremy Stravius held off the final 50 charge of Benjamin Stasiulis. Stravius touched in a time 51.18 only one one-hundreth of a second ahead of Stasiulis.
Stravius added the 100 back title to his already impressive wins in the 200 IM (154.50) and 400 IM (4:06.85) which were both French National Records.
Other winners from the evening include:
Men’s 50 Breast – Florent Manaudou – 26.39
Men’s 100 IM – Dorian Gandin – 53.52
Women’s 100 Breast – Fanny Babou – 1:07.65
Men’s 200 Fly – Jordan Coelho – 1:54.10
Women’s 100 Fly – Melanie Henique – 58.35
It’s interesting how slow some of the winning times are when you compare them to the couple of WR’s that have been broken. The FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup was much faster than most of those winning times.
Here in France, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle. And a little backstroke. Perhaps it will change one day. We’ll see.
Congrats Laure! It’s cool for her. I hope she will finish her career on a very good note next week. And perhaps it will not be the end.
Camille is human! “Only” 3.59.38! Yes it’s disappointing but she must be very tired after her fantastic 800 free. I hope she will focus next week only on the 200 free and on the 400 free to break the world records.