2023 GIANT OPEN FINALE (FRA)
The Giant Open, the final of three elite swimming competitions, kicked off yesterday with many of the same competitors we saw in both Marseille and Nice.
As revealed earlier this year, the French Swimming Federation (“FFN”) instituted its inaugural Giant Open tour, a nine-day, three-stop “tour de France” that is taking place from March 11, 2023, to March 19, 2023, featuring six days of racing in three of the Hexagon’s most iconic swim cities: Marseille, Nice, and Paris.
We’ve already seen Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom fire off world-leading times of 25.25 in the 50m fly and 24.10 in the 50m free earlier in this tri-meet series.
On day one here at Saint-German-En-Laye, Sjostrom produced a time of 53.44 to take the women’s 100m free event.
Opening in 26.38 and closing in 27.06, Sjostrom got the edge on French ace Beryl Gastaldello who touched in 53.60. Dutch speedster Marrit Steenbergen rounded out the top 3 in 54.19.
As Sjostrom dropped out of the Euro Meet this past January due to back pains, this trio of French meets represents her first dives into the 2023 calendar year of racing. Already her 53.44 rockets her to rank 3rd in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Free
O'Callaghan
52.08
| 2 | Sarah Sjostrom | SWE | 52.24 | 07/23 |
| 3 | Shayna Jack | AUS | 52.28 | 07/23 |
| 4 | Siobhan Haughey | HGK | 52.49 | 07/28 |
| 5 | Emma McKeon | AUS | 52.52 | 06/17 |
Two-time Olympic silver medalist Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands took on the 100m breast event, logging a time of 1:00.56 for the win. Earlier in this series Kamminga got under the minute mark on multiple occasions, with his French-meet-best resting at the 59.85 he put up in Nice.
Teammate Tes Schouten made some noise in the women’s 200m breast event, producing a new national record en route to gold.
Schouten stopped the clock in a time of 2:23.28 to lower her own previous Dutch standard of 2:23.67 registered at last December’s Rotterdam Qualification meet. She’s now the #2 swimmer in the world this season. Look for a subsequent post on Schouten’s new record.
2022-2023 LCM Women 200 Breast
Chikunova
2:17.55 WR
View Top 26»2 Tatjana
SchoenmakerRSA 2:20.80 07/28 3 Lilly
KingUSA 2:20.95 06/28 4 Kate
DouglassUSA 2:21.22 06/28 5 Tes
SchoutenNED 2:21.63 07/28
Frenchman Maxime Grousset got under the 52-second threshold for the first time in his career in the men’s 100m fly.
The 23-year-old earned a result of 51.72 as tonight’s gold medalist. Entering this meet Grousset’s personal best sat at the 52.00 he scored this past February.
Grousset’s new PB was enough to get him to the wall well ahead of Hungary’s Szebasztian Szabo. Szabo settled for silver in 52.89.
Grousset is a two-time 2022 World Championships medalist, having reaped 100m free silver and 50m free bronze in Budapest.
Additional Winners
- Yebba Wissam-Amazigh topped the men’s 200m free podium in a result of 1:47.32.
- Fantine Lesaffre was the fastest woman in the 400m IM, producing a time of 4:38.27 to now rank 5th in the world this season.
- The women’s 400m free saw Russia’s Anastasia Kirpichnikova grab gold in 4:08.50, her swiftest of the season.
- Emma Terebo got her hand on the wall first in the women’s 100m back, posting the sole sub-minute outing of the field in 59.92.
- Mewen Tomac took on 2 events on day one, racing in the 200m IM and the 200m back. In the former, he took gold in a time of 2:01.99 while in the latter he fell to 3rd in 1:58.44. A pair of Greek swimmers took the gold and silver in the 2back, as Apostolos Siskos clocked 1:58.01 and Apostolos Christou was right behind in 1:58.13.
- Tabatha Avetand won the women’s 200m fly in a time of 2:11.90, the 4th fastest outing of the 18-year-old’s career.
- The men’s 800m free saw Logan Fontaine get it done for gold in a result of 7:52.93 within striking distance of his best-ever 7:52.31 from last year’s French Championships.