Three French NAG Records Fall in 3rd Stage of Golden Tour in Amiens

FFN Golden Tour Camille Muffat – Amiens

The next generation of French swimming was on display this weekend in Amiens, at the third and final stage of the FFN Golden Tour Camille Muffat. With a month to go before their championship meets, both 17-year-old Cyrielle Duhamel of Stade Béthune Pélican Club and 16-year-old Mewen Tomac, swimming in front of his home crowd in Amiens, broke French national age group records.

Duhamel began a two-day assault on the record books on Friday with a big 4:45.76 in the 400 IM that landed her on the third step of the podium in the event, behind Olympic champion and world record-holder Katinka Hosszu of Hungary (4:36.19) and Fantine Lesaffre of Montpellier (2nd with 4:43.02).

Duhamel took nearly 1.4 seconds off the record for 17-year-old girls set by Lara Grangeon of Calédoniens, during the French Elite Championships in Dunkerque in April of 2008. The side-by-side comparison of splits is as follows:

  Cyrielle Duhamel
Amiens, 28/4/2017
Lara Grangeon
Dunkerque, 20/4/2008
Fly 1:05.11 1:03.79
Back 1:14.11 1:12.59
Breast 1:21.41 1:24.32
Free 1:05.05 1:06.45
  4:45.76 4:47.15

Duhamel has worked hard on the second half of her race this year, and while it paid off handsomely, she didn’t expect to be this fast this early in the season. The French Elite Nationals are still three weeks away. Duhamel told the press after her race, “We’ve been working on the breast and the free, two strokes where I was really behind [other swimmers], and I really see the difference. Our hard work has paid off already. That motivates me even more. It’s a good sign for Nationals in Schiltigheim next month.”

The next day Duhamel took down the 17-year-old girls’ mark in the 200 IM, wiping nearly 1.2 seconds off the record set by Camille Muffat of Nice when she won the title at European Junior Championships in Budapest in 2005. Muffat, who would go on to win Olympic gold in the 400 free in London in 2012, was better over the first 100 meters, while Duhamel’s second half, 2.6 seconds faster, made the difference.

This time, Duhamel won the event, beating both Lesaffre (second with 2:13.90) and Hosszu (third in 2:15.36).

  Cyrielle Duhamel
Amiens, 29/4/2017
Camille Muffat
Budapest, 16/7/2005
Fly 29.15 28.11
Back 34.28 33.17
Breast 39.10 39.64
Free 31.15 33.38
  2:13.68 2.14.84

Tomac first broke the 200 back age group record for 16-year-old boys last December in Dunkerque. He took another 1.06 seconds off his mark on Sunday, en route to a fourth-place finish in the A final of the men’s 200 back. David Verraszto of Hungary won the event in a close battle with Marseille’s Ben Stasiulis (2:01.52) and Nantes’ Maxence Orange (2:01.70).

Tomac split the two 16-year-old records as follows:

Mewen Tomac
Amiens, 30/4/2017
Mewen Tomac
Dunkerque, 16/12/2016
28.53 29.04
31.07 31.23
31.46 31.75
31.53 31.63
  2:02.59 2:03.65

 

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About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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