2024 French Olympic Trials: Day 5 Prelims Recap – Manaudou 21.52 in Prelims, Fastest Since Rio
2024 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sunday, June 16 – Friday, June 21
Chartres, France
LCM (50 meters)
Meet
Entry List
Results
Live Stream
Prelims: Day 1 |Day 2 |Day 3 |Day 4
Finals: Day 1 |Day 2 |Day 3 |Day 4
This morning, there were just five events at the 2024 French Elite Championships. It’s the penultimate day, and tomorrow represents swimmers’ last chance to make an impression. However, some opted not to wait til tomorrow and put up some strong swims this morning.
In the women’s 200 fly, Lara Grangeon de Villele posted the top time by over a second and a half as she cruised in the wall in a time of 2:10.33. The New Caldenoian has competed in both open water and in the pool at the Olympics and has a personal best of 2:07.87 in this event. With the Olympic Qualifying time set at 2:08.43, Grangon-de Villele will need to get back down to near her PB to make the team in this event.
Florent Manaudou and Maxime Grousset set themselves up for a barn burner tonight in the men’s 50. Manaudou, who has won a medal in this event at the last three Olympics, gold in 2012, and silver in 2016 and 2021, will look to punch his ticket to Paris to make it four straight medals.
This morning, the French star stopped the clock at a speedy 21.52 to take the top seed tonight. Manaudou is tied as the 6th fastest performer ever in the event, courtesy of his 21.19 from the 2015 Worlds. The 21.52 he swam this morning appears to be his fastest time since 2016 and was .03 faster than his silver medal-winning time in Tokyo.
Behind Manaudou, Grousset put in a strong performance to touch second in 21.66. Grousset has a PB of 21.57, and his performance this morning appears to be his second-fastest swim ever. Both are well under the 21,98 OQT, so it just remains to be seen how much faster they can go tonight.
There will be a surprising name in the center lane tonight in the men’s 200 back, as Antoine Herlem posted the top time of 1:58.33. He’s situated just ahead of Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Mewen Tomac, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can make it a three-way race tonight as the two more experienced swimmers will look to move past him,
Other Events:
Women’s 50 Back: Mary-Ambre Moluh posted the fastest time this morning, stopping the clock in 27.82, just ahead of Analia Pigree’s 27.89
Women’s 800 Free: Lisa Pou posted the fastest time this morning as she stopped the clock in 8:49.29, Pou had represented France before, but now swims for Monaco.
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