Most of the team from Olympic Nice, including Cammile Muffat, Yannick Agnel, and Clement Lefert, sat out the final day of the meet on Sunday presumably as a travel day home from the National circuit meet in Montpellier.
As for Muffat, the move is not a surprise, after she told France’s L’Independant that she would focus on the 200 and 400 freestyles at this year’s Olympic Trials. This means that she will not again try for the 100 free title (she finished 9th in the semifinals in Shanghai to miss the final in that race) or the 800 free (that she won at last year’s French Nationals, but ended up not swimming at Worlds).
With that context, the Dutch sprinters (as they often do) dominated Sunday’s women’s 100 freestyle final.
Femke Heemskerk, who had a very good swim on Saturday in her non-specialty 400 free, topped the standings in 54.17. That ties her for 3rd in the world this year. She didn’t race the 200 free, which is an event she could medal in at the Olympics, but combining this strong 100 with a lifetime best in the 400, we can interpolate that a strong 200 would have come out of her as well. Inge Dekker took 2nd in this race in 55.07.
The top-finishing French swimmer was 16-year old Beryl Gastaldello in 3rd place (she was one of the few from Nice who hung around). Her 56.48 is a very good time for the 2nd-fastest 16-year old in the history of French swimming.
In the men’s 100 free, sprinter Florent Manaudou led a 1-2-3 Marseilles finish with a time of 49.67. That’s the 2nd-best time of his career as he focuses on a spot in the Olympic free relay this year. This is the 2nd-best time of his career, which is encouraging because Marseilles seems to be at a much different spot in their training than their counterparts from Nice.
Algerian swimmer Nabil Kebbab took 2nd in 50.21, with Fabien Gilot placing 3rd in 50.25. Gilot’s mark is the indicator that Marseilles is in big training – his times, though not great, are typical of him this time of year, and he usually tapers off around two seconds. That’s encouraging for Manaudou.
Meanwhile, Camille Lacourt joined his Marseilles teammates to partake in the 100 and 200 backstroke at this meet. His 100 time today of 54.33 was a huge step up from the 2:03 he posted in the 200 on Saturday.
oup i posted without finishing what i wanted to say : the same weekend Strasiulis swam 1.58.91 IN CHAMALIERES , the 4th time of the year . IN order to qualify for the games , the 2 st french swimmers will have to swim less than 1.59.77 in the semi final and then 1.58.48 for the 200 back . LINK to the qualiying french trials times : http://dublincat.livejournal.com/27354.html
his 2.03 is bad compared to the swim by
I still can’t understand why Lacourt is so bad over 200, and that’s even before contrasting it with his 52 flat 100.
Yeah 2:03 is really pretty dreadful, in-season or not. I seem to remember him dying on the back-half of the 100 even last year at the Mare Nostrum. If he trains on after London, he needs to take a year doing nothing but building endurance. Then he’ll really be something.