Jeremy Desplanches Just Misses another Swiss Record to Close French Nationals

2019 FRENCH SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, December 12th – Sunday, December 15th
• Piscine Jean Boin, Angers, France
• SCM
• Live Results

After a win and a new Swiss Record in the 400 IM on Saturday, Jeremy Desplanches almost got another in the 200 IM, his best event, on Sunday. Desplanches swam 1:53.83 to win the 200 IM French title by just over 2 seconds, and to just-barely miss his own best time of 1:53.51 that he set at this same meet last year.

Interestingly, his pacing in this swim was quite different than the pacing he used in his record-setting swim, which perhaps indicates a new strategy as the Olympic Games approach.

Splits:

• Desplanches on Sunday: Fly 24.5/Back 28.5/Breast 32.7/Free 27.9
• Desplanches Swiss Record: Fly 24.9/Back 28.2/Breast 33.0/Free 27.3

Desplanches trains at Olympic Nice Natation on the Mediterranean coast alongside both Jeremy Stravius (who won the 50 back on Sunday in 23.05) and Charlotte Bonnet (who won the women’s 400 free on Sunday in 3:59.80 – just .16 seconds from her lifetime best). Bonnet and Desplanches are romantic partners.

Other Day 4 Winners:

• Naële Portecop won the women’s 100 fly in 58.29 and in the process broke the French Record for 16-year olds. Further down the rankings, Lucie Delmas placed 6th in 59.80, which is a French Record for 15-year olds.
• David Aubry won the men’s 1500 free in 14:32.77 ahead of Tunisian Ayoub Hafnaoui (14:36.12). Aubry also won the 400 free and 800 free earlier in the meet.
• Marseille’s Theo Bussiere picked up a win in the 50 breaststroke in 26.56 on Sunday. That’s a lifetime best and improves upon the 26.63 that he swam at last week’s European Championships. Bussiere also won the 100 breaststroke earlier in the meet in what was also a best time of 57.42. He was 10 in prelims of the 200 breast before scratching finals.
• Dutch swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal, representing French club Montpellier Metropole at this meet, won the 200 back in 2:05.80 on Sunday. With her career now focused mostly (though not exclusively) on open water, van Rouwendaal still managed a pair of wins this weekend in the 200 back and 200 fly.
• Anastasia Urbaniak from Chalon-Sur-Saone won the women’s 100 IM in 1:01.34. That was a tight race that saw the top 3 finishers finish within .16 seconds of each other.
• Maxime Grousset from Amiens Metropole won the men’s 100 free in 46.10 ahead of Stravius (47.02). Clement Mignon, the 2nd-best swimmer in prelims, scratched the final. 34-year old Olympic medal-winning sprinter Amaury Leveaux, who is on a comeback trail at this meet including a 3rd-place finish in the 50 free, didn’t race the 100.