European Championships, Budapest
Alain Bernard, Olympic and European Champion over 100m freestyle, has been dropped from the French medley relay quartet for the closing final of the 2010 championships on Margaret Island. In his place will be Fabien Gilot, who did not get a solo berth in the 100m here after falling shy in one round to meet the heats-semis-final time standards at French trials, while Fred Bousquet will race the butterfly leg.
The decision follows events in 2008 and here in Budapest in which Bernard let gold slip away from Gaul's grasp: he led Jason Lezak in Beijing 2008 but lost at the end; he entered the water exactly at the same moment as Russian Daniil Izotov here in Budapest and floundered under the pressure, the Russian bringing home gold for his quartet in 47.87, Bernard on 48.70. That compared to a lead-off leg of 48.47 for Gilot, 0.02sec faster than Bernard won the 100m solo crown in on Friday.
Bernard did not race in the prelims either, William Meynard having secured France's place in the final this evening.
