Back from a training camp in South Africa, Olympic 100m free champion Alain Bernard (FRA) gets back into the fray in France today with a 50m dash at the Nice Meeting.
His coach at Antibes, Denis Auguin tells L’Equipe: "I guarantee nothing" but his charge will be "stronger than he was at his first 2010 outing, at the Luxembourg meet in January. Then, Bernard got the sprint ball rolling for the new textile era with a 49.58 over 100m three weeks into a return to full training.
In Pretoria, Bernard has enjoyed the sun, endured the pain of training at altitude and covered 60 to 70km a week. Auguin said that Nice would be "a test of whether he can train 70km a week without exploding. He did it and did it with pleasure." The 50m free unfolds today in Nice and the 100m on Sunday.
One of the key aims for Bernard is to get his breathing right, Auguin noting that in Luxembourg he had broken from a normal pattern of one breath every four strokes to takijng a breath every two strokes.
Exciting young hope Yannick Agnel will race one of the sprint events plus 800m free, 200m medley or 100m backstroke, his coach Fabrice Pellerin tells the paper, to give the swimmer some "reference points" in events that he is not accustomed to racing. Also at the meet: free ace Coralie Balmy and medley ace Camille Muffat.
