Muffat Doubles; Lacourt, Manaudou Pick Up Wins on Day Three of French Nationals in Chartres

2014 French Long Course National Championships

• Dates: Tuesday, April 8 – Sunday, April 13, 2014; prelims 9:00 am, semis/ finals 5:00 pm
• Location: Chartres, France  (GMT +1, or 6 hours ahead of N.Y., 9 ahead of L.A.)
• Results: Available Here
• Televised: Eurosport France
• Championship Central

Meet previews Part One and Part Two
Day One finals recap
Day Two finals recap

Day Three: Thursday, April 10 – Finals Contested:

Women’s 800 free: Thursday’s final session began with the fast heat of the women’s 800 free. As expected, top-seeded Coralie Balmy of Mulhouse won the event. She went 8:29.18, two seconds off her seed time. Balmy was the only French swimmer to have met the qualifying standard for Euros in this event. Second place went to Morgane Rothon of Dijon in 8:42.17, about a 0.5 faster than her second-place finish last year. Coralie Codevelle of Sarcelles took third in 8:45.54, a nine-second improvement over her 2013 performance. The cutoff for Berlin was 8:36.9.

Men’s 200 free: Yannick Agnel looked much more in his element than in Tuesday’s 400 final; he won the 200 handily in 1:45.63, splitting 24.33, 26.55, 27.37, 27.38. Grégory Mallet of Marseille took second in 1:48.29, .02 off his semi-final swim. Lorys Bourelly of Toulouse was third (1:49.05) and Clément Mignon of Marseille (1:49.19), fourth. All four made the 1:49.54 standard for Berlin.

Women’s 100 breast: Claire Polit (Montpellier) and Charlotte Bonnet (Nice), who both came in seeded with 1:09-mids, needed to go under 1:09.52 to qualify for Berlin. They did, tying for first place with 1:09.25 apiece. Fanny Deberghes (Montauban) took third with 1:10.03.

Women’s 100 free: Nice’s Camille Muffat won the first of her two events of the evening with a 54.08 in the 100 free. That’s .02 faster than her winning time in 2013. The next three places went to her teammates from Nice: Bonnet was second with 54.62, while Anna Santamans and Chloé Hache tied for third in 55.35. All four made it in under the 55.41 cutoff for Euros.

So far, the 100 free and the 50 fly are the only events where French women have qualified for all four possible spots on the roster for Berlin.

Men’s 50 free: Prelims for the men’s 50 free took place this morning, with Marseille teammates Fabien Gilot (22.50), Yoris Grandjean (22.52), and Florent Manaudou (22.73) leading the pack. There is only one final so just ten made it back for a night swim. In the final it was Manaudou in 21.70, with clean water all around him. Nosy Pélagie (Lyon) took second with a personal best 22.43, while Gilot and Clément Mignon (Marseille) tied for third in 22.45. All four made the Berlin cut of 22.74.

Men’s 200 IM: Top-seeded David Verraszto of Hungary won in the only sub-2:00 time, 1:59.92. Ganesh Pedurand (Toulouse) was second in 2:02.50; Romain Landry (Toulouse) was third with 2:02.76. This is the first event for which there we no French qualifiers for Berlin. The qualifying standard was 2:02.08.

There was, however, a new national age group record. Tanguy Lesparre of Cannes went 2:06.91 to win the men’s 15-16 final and break the French record for 15-year-old boys, previously 2:07.73.

Women’s 100 fly: Muffat of Nice picked up her second win of the evening with a 58.54 in the 100 fly. Teammate Marie Wattel took second in 59.40. French national record-holder in the 50 fly, Mélanie Henique, finished third in 59.57. All three qualified for Berlin (1:00.39).

Men’s 50 back: Camille Lacourt of Marseille inched closer to Benjamin Treffers at the top of the TYR World Rankings with his 24.76 victory in Chartres. Runner-up Jérémy Stravius of Amiens moved up to third on that list, going 24.80. Eric Ress took bronze in 25.79 and Benjamin Stasiulis (Marseille) was fourth with 25.86. All four came in under the 26.05 standard for Berlin.

Day Three: Thursday, April 10 – Semi-Finals Contested:

Men’s 200 fly: Top 3 qualifiers: Jérémy Stravius (Amiens) in 2:00.25; Thomas Vilaceca (Montauban) 2:00.35; and Paul Lemaire (Toulouse) 2:01.27. (Berlin cut = 2:00.03)

Men’s 200 breast: Thomas Dahlia (Antibes) 2:12.50; Quentin Coton (Antibes) 2:13.05; Patrick Perisser (Toulouse) 2:14.98. (Berlin cut = 2:13.76) In the junior national semi-finals Jean Dencausse of Toulouse set another national age-group record for 17-year-olds, this time in the 200 breast where his 2:13.73 beat a 2:16.17 mark that had stood since 1994.

Women’s 200 IM: Evelyn Verraszto (Hungary) was way out front after semis with a 2:13.81. Czech Republic’s Barbora Zavadova qualified second in 2:15.89. The top French time belonged to Fantine Lesaffre of Mulhouse, in 2:17.03. Lara Grangeon (Calédoniens), already crowned champion in the 400 IM, qualified fourth in 2:18.44. (Berlin cut = 2:16.09)

Women’s 100 back: Cloé Credeville of Marseille, who won the 200 back yesterday, was the top qualifier out of semi-finals with 1:02.91. Mathilde Cini (Valence) and Béryl Gastadello (Marseille) were the only others under 1:04 with 1:03.19 and 1:03.59, respectively. (Berlin cut = 1:02.16)

 French Qualifiers for 2014 European Championships in Berlin