2023 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, June 11th – Friday, June 16th
- Rennes, France
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- FFN Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Live Stream
We entered day two of the 2023 French Elite Championships with the nation’s best swimmers vying for slots on the World Championships roster.
After a stunning day one which saw Leon Marchand put up the 4th swiftest 200m breaststroke in history, the 21-year-old Arizona State University star contested the 200m free.
Marchand clocked a smooth morning swim of 1:48.70 to grab the 7th seed, positioned exactly 2 seconds off the leader. Landing lane 4 was Roman Fuchs who took top seed honors in 1:46.70.
Both men produced personal bests already in the heats, with Fuchs overtaking his previous career-quickest of 1:47.20 from last year while Marchand’s time this morning destroyed his old mark of 1:53.74 from 2019.
25-year-old Fuchs entered this competition ranked as the 9th fastest Frenchman in history and his 1:46.70 morning outing now bumps him up to rank as the 7th swiftest.
Aside from Olympic medalist Yannick Agnel, the men’s 200m free has historically been a relatively weak event for the French men.
Agnel owns the national record with his other-worldly time of 1:43.14 from the 2012 Olympic Games; however, Jeremy Stravius is the only other man who has delved under the 1:46 barrier and now just 7 swimmers have ever been under 1:47 threshold.
As for Marchand, it’s unwise to predict just how quickly this versatile phenom will go with the Sun Devil blowing away expectations with every swim.
For a point of reference to get our minds racing, Marchand owns a PB of 1:30.77 in the 200 yards freestyle, which converts to a 1:43.95 in long course meters.
Additional Notes
- The women’s 100m back saw Mary-Ambre Moluh take the top seed in a time of 1:00.11, with Emma Terebo next in line with 1:00.48. Pauline Mahieu, Analia Pigree and Beryl Gastaldello are lurking among the competitors for tonight’s final.
- Yohann Ndoye-Brouard punched a mark of 53.95 to lead the men’s 100m back, while 3 other men were under the 55-second threshold. Clement Secchi logged 54.37 to flank Ndoye-Brouard while Mewen Tomac will be on the other side in 54.51. Antoine Herlem is also in the mix with a heats time of 54.91.
- The women’s 200m breast had Justine Delmas as its top swimmer, producing a morning outing of 2:26.88. Only Charlotte Bonnet joined Delmas under the 2:30 barrier, clocking a heats result of 2:29.54.
1:30 converts to more of a 1:45 lol
What’s the latest on Yannick Angel?
he’s in jail
Wow. How long was the sentence?
I don’t know if I agree that 1:30.7 yards converts to 1:43.9 meters. More like 1:44 high/1:45 low. Lots of guys who’ve been 1:29 and 1:30 haven’t been close to 1:43.
What happens in the bathtub, stays in the bathtub.
Except for that 200 breast. Which is maybe the biggest difference from bathtub to big boy pool.
Technically, wouldn’t Marchand’s best 200 “freestyle” time be the 1:52+ he did in the fly last year? Or does it not work that way?
It sort of becomes a debate of language rather than a debate of rules. The 200 freestyle could either be viewed as a description of an event or the openness of the style. If it’s the former, that time wouldn’t count, if the latter, it would.
But either way it’s kind of amusing :-).
Thank you for the explanation; yes, it is.
His best time in the fly is 1:53.37 (for now), still faster than his official 200 free PB until today (but he was 1:47 in the relay last year, so).
If we see a similar time drop as the 200Br, 1’45 is possible. By no means an ‘outlandish’ time in this day and age, so why not! He is more than a good enough swimmer to do so…
An exactly proportional drop compared to PB, as the 200 breast is significantly slower than the 200 free, would give us a finals time of 1:46.87 for Marchand. An exactly proportional drop compared to prelims-to-finals in the 200 breast would give us a 1:45.95.
Adding the SCY to LCM conversion is silly. We all know it’s wrong.
Indeed. They are practically different sports!
I feel like the author makes note of that. “As a point of reference to get our minds racing…” is hardly calling something fact.
There should be two conversion tables, one for elite swimmers with otherworldly underwaters and another for the rest of us.
We have had a few men break 1:30 in scy, but none of them have come close to a 1:43 in LCM.
As was pointed out yesterday, Leon’s swim wasn’t the 4th fastest 200m breaststroke swim in history. He is the 4th fastest individual to have swum it.
It is the 5th fastest ever. I believe ZSC has 2 swims faster, Chupkov 1, and Sato 1.
6th. zsc has 3 swims faster. but your point is otherwise correct
Thanks.
Waiting for people to be disappointed with his incoming 1:46/7….his freestyle is much more UWD oriented than his other strokes
I was hoping to prove you wrong with something factual, but he actually had one of the slower freestyle splits in the 400IM at 2022 WCs. Of course we are comparing apples to oranges here. He was only faster than Seto and Hollo.