In an article in L'Equipe today that considers Leveaux's move away from Lionel Horter to Fred Vergnoux in Paris and then a further move to Laure Manaudou's mentor Philippe Lucas, the French head coach says he wants to believe that Leveaux is finally on the right track but admits that the past causes him to harbour doubts. 

"When Amaury was the strongest (Euro s/c championships, Rijeka, December 2008), when he broke five world records in four days, this should have been a starting point but it led to a break ... He thought he had arrived," Horter tells the paper. "If he went to train with Philippe to find a resolution, all good and well. But if he went there to escape [hard work]...". The stopwatch, concludes L'Equipe, will "deliver the true verdict - the only one that counts".

Leveaux withdrew from the Canet leg of the Mare Nostrum last week after finishing outside the top 40 and over 52sec over 100m free at Monaco. The explanation was that he was in a phase of covering 80km a week with Lucas and was on his knees. That kind of workload is what was advocated by Vergnoux after Horter. Budapest and the European Championships in August will be a first test of Leveaux's partnership with Lucas, though the man behind Manaudou's might is likely to have a longer-term target in mind.