The first night of finals at the 2019 French Swimming Championships had some fast swims by some of the biggest names in France.
Plenty is on the line in this meet as swimmers look to qualify for world championships and other international competitions.
Women’s 100 Fly
The meet started with the 100 fly and Beryl Gastaldello surged ahead early and hung on to win in 57.69.
The Texas A&M All-American finished 16 hundredths off a world championships qualifying time.
Marie Wattel finished second in 58.00, followed by Lena Bousquin, who finished in 59.56.
Fourth place went to Anais Arlandis and Josianne Valette, who tied in a minute flat.
Mathilde Descamps finished sixth in 1:00.84, followed by Amilia Pigree (1:02.84).
Margaux Fabre was disqualified.
Men’s 400 IM
Swiss star Jeremy Desplanches won the 400 IM at the French meet, finishing well ahead of the pack in 4:12.86. He lowered his own Swiss record in the event.
The rest of the field in the finals was French.
Samy Helmbacher finished second in 4:18.17, followed by Antione Marc (4:18.43) and Clement Bidard (4:29.30).
Leon Marchand finished fifth (4:19.78), followed by Geoffrey Renard (4:20.04), Emilien Mattenet (4:26.33) and Baptiste Colomas (4:30.90).
Men’s 50 Fly
The men’s 50 fly came down to the touch and Mehdy Metella got his hands on the wall first in 23.56 to hold off Jeremy Stravius, who finished just behind in 23.58.
Yonel Govindin was third (23.84), followed by Pierre Hendry Arrenous (24.18), Nicolas Vermorel (24.23), Thomas Pipron (24.26), Serguei Comte (24.28) and Algeria’s Oussama Sahnoune (24.43).
No one reached the world standard of 23.30.
Women’s 400 Free
Anna Egorova of Russia held off the competition to win in 4:10.73.
The French national title went to Fantine LeSaffre, who finished in 4:12.07.
Lara Grangeon finished third in 4:12.68, followed by Joana Desbourdes (4:124.95). Aurelie Muller was fifth (4:16.87), followed by Orlane Hita (4:19.43), Nolwenn Nunes (4:20.08) and Oceane Cassignol (4:28.34).
Men’s 100 Breast
Theo Bussiere was the only swimmer in the field to finish under 1:01 in the 100 breast, finishing in 1:00.31 to win the title.
Antoine Viquerat was second in 1:01.38, followed by Thomas Boursac Cervera Lortet (1:01.68).
Thibault Capitaine was fourth (1:01.71), followed by Wassim Elloumi (1:01.97) of Tunisia.
Jean Dencausse was sixth (1:02.15), followed by Theo Berry (1:02.89) and Matthias Loth (1:02.89).
Men’s 1500 Free
David Aubry had the fastest time in the 1500 free, finishing in 14:54.42 to hold off the rest of the field.
Damien Joly was second in 14:56.96 as the top two finishers have qualified for worlds.
Joly was, followed by Paul Beaugrand (15:15.94), Marc-Antoine Olivier (15:28.91), Joris Bouchaut (15:29.38) and Tunisia’s Ahmed-Ayoub Hafnaoui (15:31.06).
Mathias Castera was seventh (15:32.39) and Paul Barascud was eighth (15:37.60).
The FINA “A” cut (2 swimmers allowed) in the women’s 100 Fly is :58.48. Gastadello at :57.69 (Currently #10 in the World) and Wattell at :58.00 are both well under the FINA standard for 2 swimmers from a country.
Can you please give us a listing or a link to what the French standards are?