Meynard Trumps Agnel at French Nationals In 100 Freestyle

William Rittenhouse is a dual-citizen for Great Britain and the United States. He attends school in London, England, and is spending his junior year abroad in Rennes, France. He is training with Cercle Paul Bert Bréquigny, the club that is hosting this year’s French Nationals, and he brings today’s report from French Nationals.

Another mixed day at French Nationals. While several frenchmen went under the Barcelona World Championship’s qualifying time in the 100 free, none came within three seconds of it in the 400 IM. It’s either feast or famine here in France. Today, the Hungarians were the stars of the show, the Verraszto siblings winning golds in the 200 and 400 IM respectively.

In the women’s 200 IM, Hungary’s Evelyn Varraszto got out to an imposing 3 second lead after the first 100 and held it through her weaker second half. She finished in 2:11.71, well under the Barcelona qualifying time and good enough for 8th in the world this year. Sophie De Ronchi touched second overall and was the only Frenchwoman to qualify for Barcelona in a 2:14.60.

In the most exciting event of the night, the men’s 100 freestyle, Yannick Agnel was thought to be a lock for first, having gone half-a-second faster than anyone else in the semifinals yesterday. However, while William Meynard in lane 5 may have only split a 23.44 at the 50, .2 seconds slower than Agnel and .3 slower than Fabien Gilot in lane 3, he powered off the turn to take the win in a rapid 48.53, making him the third fastest 100 freestyler of 2013. Agnel finished .09 seconds behind to take silver, and Gilot, the leader at the 50 mark, held on to win bronze.

The Hungarian women were once again on form in the semifinals of the 100 fly. Evelyn Verraszto swam in the first heat, having had only 1 race between her 200 IM and the 100 fly to recover, and still managed to qualify third for tomorrow’s final. Eszter Dara, another Hungarian, was the only woman able to dip under the minute mark during the semis, thus setting herself up as the lady to beat tomorrow. Verraszto will be rested for tomorrow, when the competition will very likely become a Hungarian duel for first.

With the highest seed from the semi-finals of the women’s 100 back coming in with a 1:02.33, we weren’t expecting any fireworks in this race. However, Cloé Credeville from nearby Nantes managed to pull off a stunner by finishing in 1:00.65, winning the race by over two seconds and qualifying by a large margin for Barcelona this summer in doing so. This made up for her 200 backstroke, where she was about three seconds off the FINA A standard. Her 100m speed is a good sign for her 50m back on Saturday.

Nothing special in the men’s 200 breaststroke. William Debourges took gold in a time of 2:13.85, just ahead of Patrick Perisser’s 2:13.99.  Giacomo Perez Dortona, winner of the 100m breaststroke, couldn’t hold on in the longer distance, finishing off of the podium in 2:14.77.

Jordan Coelho had a great swim in men’s 200 fly. He split the race well, going out in a 54.99 and coming back in a 1:01.72 to finish in a 1:56.71. His stroke looked relaxed and controlled the entire race – on his last 20m he even managed to pick up his stroke rate. This time qualifies him Barcelona and places him fourth in the world in 2013. No other French competitor went sub two minutes.

In the semi-finals of the women’s 200m breaststroke, no swimmer broke 2:30. Coralie Dobral was the closest in 2:30.76, which is still well off the FINA A standard of 2:27.88. However, Dobral’s seed time coming into this competition is a 2:27.27, so we’ll see what she can pull out in final’s tomorrow. Going into the final second is a Brit, Carmella Kitching.

In the Men’s Final of the 400 IM, David Verraszto of Hungary was already a body-length ahead of the French competitors by the 100 mark and after the backstroke leg, he was four-seconds up on his nearest competitor. Verraszto finished in a world-best time of 4:13.40, well under the FINA ‘A’ standard, while the first Frenchman, Arnaud Rondan, finished more than nine-seconds later and well off the world championship qualifying time.

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tom
Reply to  bobo gigi
10 years ago

Yannick Agnel is sick.
He will try to qualify also for 200m but there will be some risk for the title because of wonderful Stravius…

bobo gigi
10 years ago

Surprise, surprise! Yannick Agnel beaten. But is it a so big surprise? He was already disappointing during the short course season in the 100 free but we thought the reason was just short course sprint is not for him. And on the other hand he has broken the 400 free world record and the 800 free European record. It seems he doesn’t know anymore which races to focus on and to swim. After London I thought he would focus on the 100 free to play with Nathan Adrian and James Magnussen. After his fantastic short course season in the longer distances I thought he would focus on the 400 free to play with Sun Yang. And now this week, he… Read more »

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
10 years ago

It seems he doesn’t know anymore on which events to focus and which events to swim. But since then, I have learned he was a little sick. So perhaps he would have swum 47.50 and my questions would have been useless.

john26
10 years ago

No Agnel placed second, so he’ll be swimming the 100 as well. I’m not going to lie, I expect someone to go into the 48lows. By someone I mean’t Agnel, because I couldn’t see any of the other guys dipping under 48.5. I suspected that France was not going to be able to get 4 guys under 49 based on the times being swum in the prelims and semis. At this rate, its hard to see this team break 3:11 in the 4x1free relay, which really puts them in the danger zone. With Gilot coming back from injury, and Leveaux well off his best. The two of them combined, I speculate, by the Summer will be about a second slower… Read more »

Philip Johnson
Reply to  john26
10 years ago

He did, my mistake.

Philip Johnson
10 years ago

So Agnel is just swimming the 200 now? Seems like a waste of talent.

About Gold Medal Mel Stewart

Gold Medal Mel Stewart

MEL STEWART Jr., aka Gold Medal Mel, won three Olympic medals at the 1992 Olympic Games. Mel's best event was the 200 butterfly. He is a former World, American, and NCAA Record holder in the 200 butterfly. As a writer/producer and sports columnist, Mel has contributed to Yahoo Sports, Universal Sports, …

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