2020 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 10th – Sunday, December 13th
- Saint-Raphaël, France
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifying Meet
- French Olympic Qualifying Procedures
- SwimSwam Preview
- Start Lists
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap
- Live Results
The final day of the 2020 French Elite Championships is upon us, which means we’ll get more of Maire Wattel, Beryl Gastaldello, Mewen Tomac and more before the action is through in Saint-Raphaël.
Of note, we were supposed to see Olympian Florent Manaudou in the water today for the men’s 100m free but the 30-year-old was a no-show for the race. He already qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with his 21.73 50m free earlier in the meet.
In his stead, it was Maxime Grousset who claimed the top seed in the 1free, posting the only time under 49 seconds in 48.67.
The French Swimming Federation (FFN) mandates a minimum qualification time of 48.23, so Grousset is on the right track to possibly make it happen tonight. The 21-year-old owns a personal best of 48.56 from this same time last year.
A big-time women’s 100m fly battle is brewing between Wattel and Gastaldello despite the former holding a near-second advantage over the latter. Wattel stopped the clock this morning in a swift 57.92, already within range of the FFN’s qualification standard of 57.51 needed to punch a ticket to Tokyo.
For Gastaldello, the ISL season 2 near-MVP touched in 58.83 to keep it close for tonight’s final.
A time of 57.00 is what Wattel threw down in the semifinals at last year’s World Championships before settling for 8th in 57.29 come the final.
Additional Notes:
- Russia’s Anastasia Kirpichnikova looks primed to make a run at the national record in the women’s 400m free after already nailing new standards across the 800m and 1500m distances here. The 20-year-old clocked a morning time of 4:08.36 to take the 4free top seed over teammate Anna Egorova‘s 4:09.82.
- The men’s 50m back saw 19-year-old Tomac land lane 4 in 24.80, the only time this morning under the 25-second barrier.
- Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches was the fastest 200m IMer of the morning, hitting 1:59.18.
