The French swimming championships kicked off this Tuesday in Chartres, with many swimmers looking for Olympic minimums for Tokyo.
Let’s go for the French swimming championships! A little over a month before the Tokyo Olympic Games, the best French swimmers are meeting in Chartres this week and many of them are dreaming of an Olympic ticket. To date, only six of them are assured of the trip to Japan: Marie Wattel (100m, 100m butterfly), Mélanie Hénique (50m), Florent Manaudou (50m), Yohann Ndoye Brouard (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke) and David Aubry (800m).
During the French championships, swimmers dreaming of the Olympics will have to achieve a stopwatch during the morning heats (calculated on the basis of the B standards of the International Federation) and another during the finals (A standards) to win their ticket, knowing that there cannot be more than two qualifiers per event.
It jostles over 400m
This Tuesday morning, six events were on the program, and 17 swimmers achieved the “morning minimums”. In the men’s 400m medley, Emilien Mattenet (21 years old) and the great hope of French swimming Leon Marchand (19) swam under the required time (4’21 ″ 46) and will have to swim at worst in 4’15 ″ 84 in the evening to be sure to go to Tokyo. Over 400m, five of them have managed the required time in the heats (3’53 ″ 58): Joris Bouchaut (25 years), Tommy-Lee Camblong (20 years), Marc-Antoine Olivier (24 years), Nicolas d’Oriano (23 years old) and Logan Fontaine (22 years old). On 100m breaststroke, it was necessary to achieve 1’01 ″ 73 and they are two to have succeeded: Antoine Viquerat (23 years old) and Théo Bussiere (25 years).
Fight between Bonne and Gastaldello to join Wattel
On the girls’ side, Marie Wattel (23 years old), who already has her ticket in the 100m butterfly and signed the best French time of the heats (the Swedish Louise Hansson was also present and was faster than her), saw two other swimmers achieve the “morning minimums” set at 59 ″ 66: Charlotte Bonnet (25 years old) and Béryl Gastaldello (25 years). The final promises to be thrilling tonight! Over 200m medley, the required time was 2’16 ″ 54 and Fantine Lesaffre (26 years), Cyrielle Duhamel (21 years old) and Camille Dauba (23 years old) passed it. Finally, over 1500m, the last test of the morning, Lara Grangeon-De Villèle (30 years old) and Aurélie Muller (31 years old) completed the requested 16’51 ″ 71.