Charlotte Bonnet Swims 1:57 in 200 Free at Golden Tour – Nice

2019 FFN GOLDEN TOUR CAMILLE MUFFAT – NICE

• Friday, February 8-Sunday, February 10, 2019
• Prelims 8:30am GMT+1 (2:30am EST/11:30pm PST); finals 4pm on Friday and Saturday (10am EST/7am PST), 3pm on Sunday (9am EST/6am PST)
• Piscine Jean Bouin, Nice, France
• 50m
• Psych sheet
• Live results
• Meet site
• Day 1 recap

Defending European Champion in the 200 free Charlotte Bonnet opened her 2019 season in her pet event with a 1:57.86 win on Saturday in Nice. She was the only swimmer in the final under 2 minutes, beating out Marie Wattel (2:00.45) and Sweden’s Michelle Coleman (2:00.63).

That time jumps Bonnet to 4th in the world so far this season, though it’s actually 6-tenths slower than she swam in her opener in Nice last year. In fact, it’s slower than she’s been at every February opener she’s raced in on this weekend since 2015. Bonnet is one of the world’s fastest in-season 200 freestylers: only Katie Ledecky and Taylor Ruck swam more sub-:157s last season than the 6 times that she did it.

Bonnet already won the 50 free (24.83) on Friday, was the fastest swimmer in prelims of both the 50 breast (31.96) and 50 fly (26.60) in prelims before scratching finals, and still has the 100 free and 100 fly left to swim on Sunday.

Other Day 2 Winners:

• Maxime Grousset won the men’ss 50 free in 49.39, beating out Jeremy Stravius (49.76). For the 19-year old Grousset, that’s a new lifetime best, improving upon the 49.51 that he swam at last summer’s European Championships.
• Sweden’s Erik Persson won the men’s 200 breaststroke in 2:12.76, beating the top-placing Frenchman, teenager Antoine Marc, by 2 seconds. This is a weakness in the current French lineup: they didn’t even enter a swimmer in the event at last summer’s European Championships.
• Lisa Mamie of Switzerland won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:27.51. That time is just .62 seconds away from the Swiss record in the event.
• Kata Burian of Hungary won the women’s 200 backstroke in 2:09.92. She finaled in the event at last summer’s European Championships.
• Another Hungarian, Bence Biczo, won the men’s 20 fly in 1:58.29, beating Sweden’s Nils Liess in 1:59.91. Biczo out-split Liess by more than a second over the final length to turn a narrow lead into a comfortable win. Another Hungarian, Olympian David Verraszto, was just 7th in the final in 2:06.42.
• Fantine Lesaffre of  France won the women’s 400 IM in  4:40.36 – more than 8 seconds ahead of the field.
• Russian Anna Egorova, who trains in France at Montpellier Metropole Natation, won the women’s 1500 free in 16:23.52. She beat out her Russian and Montpellier teammate Anastassia Kirpitchnikova, who finished 2nd in 16:27.08.
• Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches won the men’s 200 IM in 1:58.61, beating out Verraszto (2:01.66) with a huge front-half margin.
• Jeremy Stravius won the men’s 50 back in 25.23. That’s the fastest he’s ever swum this early in a calendar year.