Anastasia Kirpichnikova, Yohann Ndoye Brouard Post Day Two Wins at French Championships
The Olympic silver medalist in the women’s 1500 freestyle booked her ticket back to the World Championships with a resounding victory in the 30-lap event at the French Championships in Montpellier while Yohann Ndoye Brouard led a trio of French men under the Worlds qualifying time in the 100 backstroke.
Anastasiia Kirpichnikova turned in a mark of 15:55.27 in the 1500 free, moving her to No. 5 in the world rankings this year. The only swimmers ahead of her are Katie Ledecky, Lani Pallister, Li Bingjie and Isabel Gose. Ledecky and Gose join Kirpichnikova on the podium in the event in the Paris Olympic final. Kirpichnikova’s time of 15:40.89 from the Olympics ranks her No. 5 in history in the event. The top-three finishers included Clemence Cocordano (16:31.83) and Carla Serra (16:33.10).
Ndoye Brouard snuck into the world top-10 in the 100 back with his time of 52.81 while Mewen Tomac came in at 53.27 for second place. Both swimmers easily cleared the French qualifying mark of 53.74, as did third-place finisher Michel Arkhangelsky (53.69).
There were five swimmers, four of them French, matching or exceeding the qualifying standard of 59.99 in the women’s 100 back but the two swimmers heading to Worlds were the class of the field. Pauline Mahieu touched out Mary-Ambre Moluh for the win, 59.13 to 59.16. Analia Pigree was third (59.87), followed by Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk (59.92) and French veteran Beryl Gastadello (59.99).
No one cleared the qualifying mark in the men’s 200 free, but France could assemble a solid 800 free relay squad, particularly if Leon Marchand is called into action for the event at the global meet next month. Roman Fuchs led the way in the final in 1:46.40, followed by Rafael Fente Damers (1:47.07), Corentin Pouillart (1:47.71) and Yann Le Goff (1:47.85).
Wrapping things up on the second day of racing, Belgium’s Florine Gaspard topped the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.76, beating French swimmers Cyrielle Duhamel (1:08.14) and Chloé Braun (1:08.53).