French firework, Florent Manaudou, kicked off his 2015 FINA World Championships as part of his country’s gold medal-winning 4×100 freestyle relay yesterday. Then today, the sprint star scored his first individual win of the meet, taking the men’s 50m butterfly victory in a time of 22.97.
Of the race, Manaudou reveals he feels “pretty happy” with his result, as he states “it is difficult to win a medal in the 50 fly.” That is especially the case when one has Brazilian Nicolas Santos in the mix, as the Frenchmen was well aware. “Santos has a very, very good start”, Manaudou responded when asked if he was aware of his competition in the race. Santos would go on to earn silver in 23.09 followed by Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and Pole Konrad Czerniak who tied for bronze in 23.15
Manaudou’s sprinting prowess across multiple stroke distances simply cannot be disputed, as he earned gold medals and world records in both the men’s 50 free and 50 backstroke at this past December’s Short Course World Championships. He has steadily moved up the ranks in the butterfly stroke, improving from 5th in the 50 final at the 2011 World championships to tied for first place at 2014’s European Championships. Coming into the race today, Manaudou was tied for 6th-fastest in the world with his time of 23.37.
