2016 French Elite Long Course National Championships and Olympic Trials Selection Meet
- Dates: Tuesday, March 29 – Sunday, April 3, 2016
- Times: prelims 9:00 am, finals 6:15 pm
- Location: Montpellier, France (GMT +1, or 6 hours ahead of N.Y., 9 ahead of L.A.)
- Results: Available
- Championship Central
The French Elite Long Course National Championships will take place over 12 sessions from Tuesday, March 29 through Sunday, April 3 at the Antigone pool in Montpellier. The meet will also serve as the selection event to represent France at the 2016 Olympic Games.
The French Federation (FFN) threw down the gauntlet last September, challenging its swimmers to perform better than FINA “A” standards in order to make the team for Rio. The announcement of France’s new qualifying times followed on the heels of the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, where some insiders thought France’s women’s team underperformed. And while some athletes and coaches bemoaned the tightened standards, others welcomed the challenge. Jérémy Stravius, in particular, told his coach Michel Chrétien that if he can go fast enough in French Trials to qualify for Rio, he will have a decent shot at medaling at the 2016 Games.
| 2016 FINA A Standard | France QT for Rio 2016 | France QT for Rio 2016 | 2016 FINA A Standard | |
| Women | Men | |||
| 25.28 | 24.57 | 50 Freestyle | 21.82 | 22.27 |
| 54.43 | 53.72 | 100 Freestyle | 48.13 | 48.99 |
| 1:58.96 | 1:56.78 | 200 Freestyle | 1:46.06 | 1:47.97 |
| 4:09.08 | 4:05.64 | 400 Freestyle | 3:46.66 | 3:50.40 |
| 8:33.97 | 8:24.47 | 800/1500 Freestyle | 14:57.19 | 15:14.77 |
| 1:00.25 | 59.48 | 100 Backstroke | 53.29 | 54.36 |
| 2:10.60 | 2:08.44 | 200 Backstroke | 1:56.13 | 1:58.22 |
| 1:07.85 | 1:06.93 | 100 Breaststroke | 59.84 | 1:00.57 |
| 2:26.94 | 2:23.78 | 200 Breaststroke | 2:09.65 | 2:11.66 |
| 58.74 | 57.67 | 100 Butterfly | 51.61 | 52.36 |
| 2:09.33 | 2:06.62 | 200 Butterfly | 1:55.27 | 1:56.97 |
| 2:14.26 | 2:10.60 | 200 I.M. | 1:58.09 | 2:00.28 |
| 4:43.46 | 4:35.40 | 400 I.M. | 4:13.29 | 4:16.71 |
Prelims will be run in two sessions; the fastest heats (top 8 swimmers in distance events, two circle-seeded heats for 400s, three circle-seeded heats for 100s and 200s, and four for 50s) will swim at 9 AM, allowing for maximum recovery time for the top athletes. The other heats will swim at 11 AM. Finals are to begin at 6:15 PM.
The FFN recently concluded its three-stage Golden Tour Camille Muffat circuit which was designed to give French swimmers and their coaches an opportunity to work in stages, with a “test” meet at the end of each stage to measure their progress. It also allowed them to compete against some of the world’s top swimmers on the Road to Rio.
While the start lists won’t be published until the conclusion of the technical meeting this weekend, and late entries were being accepted through the end of Friday, here are the French swimmers to watch out for this weekend:
Men
- Yannick AGNEL (23): free
- Joris BOUCHAUT (20): distance free
- Fabien GILOT (30): 50/100 free
- Damien JOLY (22): distance free
- Camille LACOURT (29): back
- Grégory MALLET (30): 200 free
- Florent MANAUDOU (24): sprint free
- Mehdy METELLA (22): fly/free
- Clément MIGNON (21): 50/100 free
- Giacomo PEREZ DORTONA (25): breast
- Benjamin STASIULIS (28): back
- Jérémy STRAVIUS (26): free
Women
- Coralie BALMY (28): mid-distance free
- Charlotte BONNET (20): 100/200 free
- Mathilde CINI (20): sprint back
- Fanny DEBERGHES (21): breast
- Ophélie Cyrielle ETIENNE (24): mid-distance free
- Margaux FABRE (22): free
- Béryl GASTALDELLO: free/back/fly
- Lara GRANGEON (24): IM
- Cloé HACHE (17): fly/free
- Mélanie HENIQUE (22): sprint fly
- Fantine LESAFFRE (19): IM
- Pauline MAHIEU (16): 100/200 back
- Anna SANTAMANS (21): sprint free
- Marie WATTEL (17): fly
Women’s Competition
- Races to watch:
(to be updated)
Men’s Competition
- Races to watch:
(to be updated)
O, 100 fly is probably enough for Miss Worrell. 😉
More seriously I hope that Gastaldello and especially Wattel will take advantage of her presence to break 58.
A young promising French swimmer over 1000 Fly, Worrell Kelsi
http://www.liveffn.com/cgi-bin/liste_entree.php?competition=34077&langue=fra&go=epreuve&epreuve=32
Agree about the tough standards A cuts are here for a reason.
Haha.
Cool.
Because sometimes it’s tough to know.
So David Berkoff, Josh Davis and Mel Stewart are real. Like Braden Keith.
But I presume Kristaps Porzingis and Phil Jackson are not real. 🙂
bobo – that’s correct. Though, Kristaps and Phil are the same person, neither of them is whom they claim to be.
David Berkoff, first if you are the real David Berkoff, congrats for your great career. If not, that’s alright. 🙂
I can understand very well your arguments about experience for the young swimmers and the danger of focusing too much on that meet.
But on the other hand, last time the French federation has put in place very high standards, it has been very successful. After very bad 1996 and 2000 olympic games, they did that for Fukuoka 2001. Results: if I can remember, we have sent only about 5 swimmers in Japan. It has served as a wake-up call for all coaches and swimmers. And from 2003 to today we have known by far the best years of… Read more »
bobo – we only let the real David Berkoff comment under the name “David Berkoff,” though there are a few fan-names. 🙂
Ahhhh The famous David Berkoff !! Happy to hear its the real one on Swimswam . Jeahhhh
I think the standards should also take into account the maturity cycle of the team and swimmers. Right now in France, older stars like Gilot, Dortona, Lacourt are at the end of their careers while young ones haven’t peaked yet; they may benefit from exposure to multiple races at the highest level.
As to Agnel, I hope he finds his groove, but I am a bit sceptical given his recent performances. And if he doesn’t, he will still be the most successful French swimmer in history, so he can move on with his life.
I disagree with the better than A standards. In fact I think it’s foolish and condescending. 1. Why not take a young swimmer who has an A cut in order to get experience at this level? It’s not like France lacks the money to send a couple extra swImmers. 2. The faster cuts lead swimmers to put all of their eggs into the trials basket which mentally and emotionally is now harder than the actual olympics. The focus is now on the wrong meet. 3. I see this as condescending and insulting to the athletes in that it seems based upon the presumption that the athletes are lazy and won’t perform unless saddled with extra pressure and demands. Outdated philosophy.
I totally agree with Dave. If they are the best two in France, then they should go. If they are going to standards, then they should stick to them and not pick and choose some that don’t make the standard but decide to take others who also didn’t make them.
It can’t be money. They spend a fortune on their National team during the 4 years prior trying to develop the team.
I hope they loosen the standards for the swimmers that come in well under the A cut. The ones in charge continue to collect their salaries regardless. The A cut is there for a reason and no need to have a double standard.
Haha. Required times are so tough in many events.
I support that choice of high standards. Hopefully it has allowed to wake up the women’s team for example.
But it will be interesting to see how many athletes qualify.
Anyway I doubt they will let a guy stay at home if he missed the qualifying time by a few hundredths of a second.
In the swimmers to watch, I would add Jordan Pothain on the men’s side for the 200 free and the 400 free.
He has improved a lot in last few months and could play a very important role for the 4X200 free relay.
For the rest, THE biggest mistery is obviously Yannick… Read more »
Yannick Agnel is 23, not 22. Regardless, it still surprises me how young he is considering his performance in London.
It also shows that even though swimmers hit the heights young , it does not mean they can improve just because they were so young.
Dr Lucy was asked in her sidewalk booth -“What happens if you hit your peak in childhood?”
“Well – you just keep going down – a peak is a peak.”