Olympic champion Alain Bernard (FRA) claimed his first 100m free win of the season with a 49.58 ahead of Stefen Deibler (GER), on 49.94, at the Luxembourg meeting. It is three weeks since Bernard stepped up from a general fitness level of training to covering 14km a day in training for a season that marks a return to textile swim suits after a ban on non-textiles and bodysuits that began on January 1, 2010.
The race reversed the finishing order in the 50m free, won by the German sprinter, on Saturday. Speaking through the press service of his sponsor, Arena, Bernard said: "I would have liked to swim a little better, inside 49:50 or even less than 49 this evening. For the time being, it'll do." Denis Auguin noted that his charge looked no different than he did at this time last year, beyond the fact that he was wearing jammers now as opposed to a full bodysuit in 2009.
The clock had its own early season tale to tell. Bernard raced 100m freestyle l/c 15 times last year, the fastest a 46.94 - that was never recognised as a world record because he wore an arena X-Glide suit before it had been approved by FINA after a modification that the suit maker said made no difference to the degree of performance enhancement in its apparel - and the slowest, from February a 49.64 in semis at a domestic meet in which he clocked 48.83, his slowest time in a final in 2009.
Bernard was racing on the eve of leaving for a training camp in South Africa. The French sprinter said that the benefits of sun, altitude and "quality training combined with big volumes" would play out in a matter of months not weeks.
