Antoine Viquerat Leads Destruction of 50 Breast National Record at French Championships
Three men went under the French record in the 50 breaststroke on day four of the country’s national selection meet, with the win going to Antoine Viquerat. Additionally, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard won his second backstroke event of the meet as France assembles a strong group bound for the World Championships in Singapore.
Entering the day, the French record in the 50 breast belonged to Giacomo Perez Dortona at 27.36, set during the supersuit era of 2009. In prelims, that mark fell to Jérémie Delbois, who clocked 27.34. In the evening, Delbois swam even faster with his time of 27.16, but it was only good enough for third place as Viquerat won in 27.02 and Pierre Goudeneche placed second in 27.10. All three men beat the Worlds qualifying standard of 27.20.
In the 200 back final, three men beat the qualifying time of 1:57.50, but in this case, the third-place finisher has already made the cut for Worlds. Ndoye-Brouard grabbed the win in 1:56.38, just ahead of Antoine Herlem (1:56.52) and Mewen Tomac (1:56.83). Tomac previously qualified as the runnerup to Ndoye-Brouard in the 100 back.
Beryl Gastadello is off to another World Championships after sneaking under the qualifying mark in the women’s 100 freestyle final. She came in at 53.60, just better than the standard of 53.61. A potential French 400 free relay would also include Marina Jehl (54.24), Marie Wattel (54.51) and Albane Cachot (54.61) while the second-best time of the day belonged to Florine Gaspard, a Belgian visitor racing in the B-final who clocked 54.13.
No other swimmer made a Worlds qualifying standard during Tuesday’s finals. Coming close was Anastasiia Kirpichnikova, who dominated the women’s 800 free in 8:26.73. Unfortunately for her, that time was two hundredths outside the standard set by the French federation. She is already Singapore-bound based on her performance in the 1500 free, the event in which she won Olympic silver last year, so it remains to be seen if she will be allowed to swim the 100 as well. In the 800 race in Montpellier, Carla Serra (8:40.76) and Ines Delacroix (8:43.64) finished a distant second and third, respectively.
Zia Dupont took the win in the women’s 200 breast in 2:30.33, beating Lucie Vasquez (2:30.70) and Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk (2:30.92). Emillien Mattenet edged out Algeria’s Jaouad Syoud to win the men’s 200 IM, 2:00.55 to 2:00.63, with Tom Remy third (2:01.28). France will have a representative in the event at Worlds, however, with Olympic champion Leon Marchand favored for gold and in close pursuit of the world record.