2023 French Elite Championships
- Sunday, June 11th – Friday, June 16th
- Rennes, France
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
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- Day 1 Prelims Recap/ Day 1 Finals Recap
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18-year-old Pacome Bricout, who swims for the French club Stade de Vanves but trains with Philippe Lucas in Martigues, took a huge, 3.3-second bite out of the French National Age Record for 18-year-old boys in the 800 free on Wednesday with his third-place finish of 7:50.29.
Bricout came in as the #5 entrant with a seed time of 7:56.78, which he swam in March. That time made him the third-fastest French 18-year-old performer in the event. Swimming in lane 2 in the final, Bricout dropped 6.5 seconds and jumped to the top of the age group list with 7:50.29. The old 18-year-old age record had been 7:53.59, set by Tommy Lee Camblong in 2019.
With his swim, Bricout cleared the French qualifying standard for the World Championships in Fukuoka by 2.82 seconds. And although he finished third in the race behind Damien Joly (7:49.41) and Marc-Antoine Olivier (7:50.23), the latter is ineligible for selection, so Bricout earns the second slot.
| Splits: | Bricout, 2023 | Camblong, 2019 |
| 50 | 27.13 | 27.99 |
| 100 | 56.60 (29.47) | 57.92 (29.93) |
| 150 | 1:25.98 (28.38) | 1:27.77 (29.85) |
| 200 | 1:55.66 (29.68) | 1:57.86 (30.09) |
| 250 | 2:25.12 (29.46) | 2:27.54 (29.68) |
| 300 | 2:54.76 (29.64) | 2:57.75 (30.21) |
| 350 | 3:24.44 (29.68) | 3:27.35 (29.60) |
| 400 | 3:54.24 (29.80) | 3:57.66 (30.31) |
| 450 | 4:23.98 (29.74) | 4:27.17 (29.51) |
| 500 | 4:54.05 (30.07) | 4:56.98 (29.81) |
| 550 | 5:24.05 (30.00) | 5:26.80 (29.82) |
| 600 | 5:54.07 (30.02) | 5:57.13 (30.33) |
| 650 | 6:23.70 (29.73) | 6:26.37 (29.24) |
| 700 | 6:53.53 (29.83) | 6:55.95 (29.58) |
| 750 | 7:22.55 (29.02) | 7:25.28 (29.33) |
| 800 | 7:50.29 (27.74) | 7:53.59 (28.31) |
Bricout split a very even race, going 3:54.2/3:56.0 on his two halves. He was more than 3 seconds faster on each 400, having split 3:57.6/3:59.1 in his previous PB.
Bricout also owns the SCM 800 free age record in the event for both 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds. He clocked a 7:43.16 last December when he was still 17.