In her first competition since the Olympic Games, French teenager Laure Manaudou confirmed her reign over the 400m freestyle, posting a new French record of 4:01.96 at a short course invitational meet in St-Dizier. The mark shattered her previous record of 4:03.29 registered in December of 2003. The time was also only seven-tenths of a second from the European record held by the Ukraine's Yana Klochkova. Had Manaudou swam in Indianapolis, her time also would have been sufficient to secure a short course world championship title. By all indications, she should secure the European record, if not the world record, at the European Short Course Championships in December.

In addition, at this same meet last evening, Manaudou shattered the French record in the women's 1500 freestyle. Swimming exhibition for the time and the experience, she posted a time of 16:06.59 to blast the former mark (16:16.50) by just shy of ten full seconds. Unfortunately, the time will not count as the official French record because there was no women's 1500 at this meet, and Manaudou swam with the men's heats to achieve this time. She will swim the 200 butterfly and 200 backstroke later in the meet.