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On Road To Rome Bousquet 47.15 Gets Past Bernard
Apr 24, 2009 - Craig Lord
In a blistering 47.15sec, third-best ever, Auburn-based Fred Bousquet, boyfriend of resting world champion Laure Manaudou, claimed the second berth for France in the 100m freestyle at the world championships in Rome this summer by beating the first sub-47sec man, Rome 2009 preselected Alain Bernard in the final at French nationals in Montpellier.
Bousquet, rocketing his way from 25th best ever by hacking 1.18sec off his previous best, led the Olympic champion from start to finish, turning in 22.33, to Bernard's 22.52 on the way to a 47.51 that reflected his priority: world record in semis in a new suit, then focus on getting the second 50m berth behind pre-selected Amaury Leveaux on Sunday. Leveaux was beaten into fourth in the 100m, with William Meynard on 47.77 ahead of 48.17 for the world s/c record holder. Then came Fabien Gilot, Gregory Mallet, on 48.18 and 48.57. France will go to Rome a title hope in the 4x100m freestyle. Did we ever doubt it.
Bernard wore an non-fast-fabric Arena, with no polyurethane. "I don't regret not having worn the polyurethane suit," said the Olympic chamnpion who donned an Arena X-Glide for his 46.96 world record yesterday. "I wanted to know what I could do in the old one". Well, know we know: about half a second difference in this instance, for that swimmer, although he noted that his goggles had leaked. Still, so did Mikey's in that Beijing 200 'fly and he was just fine.
France has four of the top 10 fastest ever - all faster than the world record that stood to Pieter van den Hoogenband in February 2008 - and two others in the best 25 all-time. Alex Popov's 48.21 best is no longer among the best 70 performances ever, while Hoogie's world record of 47.84, still standing 14 months ago, is now outside the best 25 performances ever. Swimming has never seen the likes. Farcical.
Bousquet was out 0.02sec inside world-record pace and was faster than Bernard coming home tonight, though 0.23sec slower than Bernard at best on the way home:
Bousquet is 28 this year and is progressing faster now than at any poing in his senior career. Here is his pathway to third-best ever:
In a blistering 47.15sec, third-best ever, Auburn-based Fred Bousquet, boyfriend of resting world champion Laure Manaudou, claimed the second berth for France in the 100m freestyle at the world championships in Rome this summer by beating the first sub-47sec man, Alain Bernard in the final at French nationals in Montpellier.
Bousquet led the Olympic champion from start to finish, turning in 22.33, to Bernard's 22.52 on the way to a 47.51 that reflected his priority: world record in semis in a new suit, then focus on getting the second 50m berth behind pre-selected Amaury Leveaux on Sunday. Leveaux was beaten into fourth in the 100m, with William Meynard on 47.77 ahead of 48.17 for the world s/c record holder. Then came Fabien Gilot, Gregory Mallet, on 48.18 and 48.57.
Bousquet is 28 this year and is progressing faster now than at any point in his senior career. No idea what he wore. It helped, whatever it was. Here is his pathway to third-best ever:
The domestic 100m final all fell within 49.63 and altered the all-time top 10 thus:
Here's how the French sprinters went through the rounds, heat, semi, final:
Other sub-50 swims:
Some rip-roaring stats from the divide between a new sport and one now extinct:
More telling still than what the captain(s) is (are) up to is what is going on in the engine room:
In 53.99, Malia Metella had held the French 100m freestyle record for the past year, four years after a 54.46 best at the Olympic Games in Athens. Tonight in Montpellier, she cracked out a 53.49 to rise from 17th best ever to 6th, tucked in ahead of Federica Pellegrini's latest gain, a 53.55.
In the 200m back semis, the 1:57.90 French record of Simon Dufour from 2003 (ha! 2003 - no chance!) fell to Pierre Roger, in 1:56.64, which takes him to 14th best ever, from 46th at the turn of the year.
The 3:47.04 French record of Nicolas Rostoucher from 2006 is no more. He is still standard bearer, in 3:46.28. The women's final went to Camelia Potec (ROU), in 4:03.50, sixth best ever and a gain on her previous best of 1.05sec, with Coralie Balmy and Camille Muffat claiming the French berths for Rome 2009 in 4:04.96 and 4:06.13.
In the 100 'fly semis, Rafa Munoz (ESP) clocked 50.85, a championship record, before the second semi saw the fast-improving 22-year-old Clément Lefert, of Nice, set a French record of 51.50.
Lefert's leap past Franck Esposito went as follows:
In the final of the 200m breaststroke, Sophie de Ronchi, Massy, set her fifth national breaststroke record of the meet with a 2:25.18, over 3sec inside what her best had stood at coming into the championships. She neede to move pretty swiftly, what with Moroccan Sara El Bekri, 22 this year, moving up to a 2:26.65 from a 2008 best of 2:30.04, and Coralie Dobral, 22 this year, up to a 2:26.71 from a 2008 best of 2:30.36.
And the 200m breaststroke saw another step up for 27-year-old Tony de Pellegrini, of Bayonne (best 2008 effort 2:15.95), who must never in his wildest dreams have thought that he would take the French berth for Rome 2009 in a lifetime best of 2:11.42 ahead of Britain's Kris Gilchrist, on 2:12.08 and in a final the saw 22-year-old Thibault Marand, Massy (best 2008 effort 2:17.56), take second in 2:12.12, with 24-year-old Fabien Horth on 2:12.52 (2008 best 2:15.04) and Olympic medallist and European 200m medallist of 2008, albeit the wrong side of a post-Games rest, out of the domestic top three but not out of his national team on 2:13.23....(a reader reminds me that Duboscq as Olympic bronze medallist is preselected for Rome). So, I assume no spot for Marand.
And all of that makes 22 French records in three days.
