Day 1 Euros: Lesaffre Lowers Newly-Minted French 4IM Record

2018 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• August 3-9, 2018 (swimming portion)
• Glasgow, Scotland
• Tollcross International Swimming Centre
• Meet Central
• Program
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results

French racer Fantine Lesaffre already blew the socks off her old 400m IM personal mark in prelims here in Glasgow, taking the top seed in a time of 4:36.16. That morning outing hacked well over 2 seconds off of the 23-year-old’s previous personal best of 4:38.88 established back in 2016. Beating the field this morning, Lesaffre also notched a new French national record, overtaking the previous mark of Lara Grangeon of 4:36.61.

Lesaffre had some left in the tank tonight, however, as she rocked a gold medal-worthy effort of 4:34.14 to take the national record down just about 2 seconds further to take the European title. Comparing her morning swim with her evening race, Lesaffre kept the fly, back and breast splits similar to what she put down in prelims. The big jump came in the freestyle leg, where the French athlete dropped her 1:05.73 split down to 1:02.63 in the evening. That final leg made all the difference for Lesaffre and gave her first international senior title.