DUNKIRK, France, April 23. TWO national records fell during the fourth night of swimming at the French Olympic Trials held in Dunkirk.
Hugues Duboscq broke his national record in the men's 200 breast semifinal round with a fantastic time of 2:09.72. That moved Duboscq into sixth all time in the event, behind Grigory Falko of Russia (2:09.64) and behind Alexander Dale Oen of Norway (2:09.74). Will he join Brendan Hansen (2:08.50) and Kosuke Kitajima (2:08.84) in the 2:08 club during finals?
Duboscq's previous national record had been a 2:09.85 from the European Championships last month.
Another national record fell in the women's 200 IM when Camille Muffat crushed Laure Manaudou's standard of 2:12.41 from 2006. Muffat won the shorter medley event in a time of 2:11.15 to move into the top 10 all time. She sits behind Natalie Coughlin (2:10.88) and ahead of Mireia Belmonte Garcia (2:11.16). Cylia Vabre placed second in 2:13.19, just holding off Sophie De Ronchi (2:13.91) for the second Olympic roster spot.
Aurore Mongel claimed the women's 200 free finale with a time of 1:57.63, while Ophelie Cyriell Etienne took second in 1:58.18. Muffat (1:58.36) and Alena Popchanka (1:58.46) rounded out the top four.
Christophe Lebon posted a commanding conquest of the men's 200 fly with a time of 1:56.54 to beat the Olympic standard. Clement Lefert, his closest competition, took second in 2:00.00.
The final title on the line went to Matthieu Madelaine, Benoit Debast, Lebon and Yoris Grandjean, who clocked a time of 7:25.15 in the men's 800 freestyle relay.
In the men's 100 free semifinal round, Alain Bernard put himself in position to make another run at his world record of 47.50 from last month. Bernard dropped a remarkable time of 48.04 during semis, which broke Bernard's meet record of 48.12 from 2007.
Fabien Gilot (48.38), Amaury Leveaux (48.38) and Gregory Mallet (49.04) were among the top four qualifiers into finals.
In the women's 200 fly semis, Mongel kept up her strong day with a top qualifying time of 2:11.17. She'd already gone a meet-record time of 2:09.22 in prelims to erase Sarah Bey's standard time of 2:09.84 from 2006.
Magalie Rousseau qualified second in 2:11.83, while Petra Granlund of Sweden (2:13.49) and Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands (2:14.23) finished third and fourth in qualifying.