The Brazilian sprinting contingent put the world on notice yesterday, with four studs clocking sub-49-second 100m freestyles either in prelims or final at the Brazil Open. Nicolas Oliveira led the charge in 48.41, followed by Mattheus Santana in 48.71, and Marcelo Chierghini and Alan Vitoria in times of 48.85 and 48.96, respectively.
The first to respond to the Brazilian beasts was none other than Florent Manaudou, who scorched the men’s 100m freestyle field in Nimes, France while competing at the Christmas meet. Just when it seemed as if 2015’s most potent 50m freestyler had lost his touch in the 100m distance, Manaudou fired off a time of 47.98 to lay waste to the competitors, which included countrymate Yannick Agnel, and rocket Manaudou to the top of the world rankings for the 2015-16 season.
For Manaudou, the time ties his best time ever. The only other occasion in which the Frenchman has dipped beneath the 48-second threshold was hitting 47.98 in Berlin 2014. His swiftest of 2015 was the 48.77 he registered in Vichy this summer, so he knocked almost a cool .8 of a second from that effort to make a statement in Nimes today. In fact, his 47.98 from today would have earned him the bronze at the 2015 FINA World Championships.
What’s especially head-turning about this swim was the fact that Manaudou had only raced to 20th place last week while competing at the Amsterdam Cup. The 25-year-old touched in 50.46 to finish well out of the final. Later that same meet, Manaudou sprinted the first 100 of the men’s 200m freestyle prelims, improving slightly on his individual swim by clocking a 49-point. Both are well off the sub-48 he just threw down in Nimes, however.
The next closest competitor to Manaudou in the 100m today was actually a pair of athletes, as both Fabien Gilot and Grégory Mallet tied for 2nd place in 49.96. Fourth went to Yannick Agnel in 50.07, well off his 2015 best mark of 48.68 from April of this year.
@Dee:
It would be interesting to know their (Burras and Scott) most recent SCM times.
Did Scott swim 3.4x or exactly 3.40? 3.40 would be an amazing time for someone of his age, probably 3.48-3.49 in LCM.
Burras has some good times, but i wouldnt get too excited. In 2009 there was a 15 year old (born in 1994) german guy (Maximilian Oswald) swimming 23.34, 50.54 and 1.50.61. He didnt manage to swim 22 low, sub 49 or sub 1.49 until now …
Hintze (born in 1999) was at 23.40, 51.53 and 1.51.18 last year, but he didnt swim sub 23, sub 50 or sub 1.50 this year (probably because he focused on 200/400 IM), which is… Read more »
Last year when he swam an 100 in 47.98 his 50 was 21.32. This year his 50 was only 21.8. I think his endurance might be getting better. It’s funny how the 50, 100, and 200 Freestyle races are all looking like toss ups in Rio.
By the way, thanks to Manaudou, cool to see the reconciliation between Dee and ThomasLurzFan above!
Dee had quit swimswam last summer after a very tense debate with ThomasLurzFan.
Happy to see her back to bring us her knowledge about British swimming.
What? I never heard of that story before …
Are you even sure it was me?
Hahaha is there anything Manaudou can’t do? I just couldn’t stay away!
Dee happens to be a he, not a she, Bobo 😉
Manadou is a beast.
I do think 21.3 could be enough for gold but someone may go faster in semis or prelims on pure chance
You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you? 😆 😆 😆 😆
M A N A U D O U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t forget Magnusson. Also Ryan Hoffer might be able to step up if he can hold his wall speed together in the open pool.
Hank you are telling me that Ryan will beat Adrian, Jones, Dressel, Tony and others at the Olympic Trials?
Why not? He is improving extremely fast (Dressel as well). I am excited about the american 400 free relay. Dressel, Hoffer and Rooney (maybe also Andrew) should be the core of a fantastic relay in the future, i think they will also have some impact in Rio. 400 free is very difficult to predict. Australia (Magnussen, Chalmers, McEvoy), France (Manaudou, Agnel, Mehtella, Stravius, Gilot, Mignon), Brazil (Chierighini, Fratus, Santana), Russia (Morozov, Sukhorukov, Izotov, Grechin, Lobintsev, Sedov), Italy (Orsi, Dotto, Magnini) and the US will finish top 6. France is my favorite for the gold medal and i think Russia/Australia/USA will fight for silver and bronze. The US now has the depth to swim with almost completely different teams in prelims… Read more »
Well, things just got a lot more interesting..
What do we have to expect from Proud? His 50 free looks very good and he should fight for medals in the future, but i am not sure how good his 100 free is. I think Fratus, Adrian, Dressel and Manaudou will fight for the medals in mens 50 free in Rio (maybe Morozov will also be in the mix), so i dont expect a medal for Proud, but i am very sure that he will make the final. I think GB could really need a good freestyle sprinter, especially for the medley relay. Is there someone else who could swim about 48.5 flat next year?
Ben Proud is quite unpredictable over 100m. He only started swimming 100s aged 16 as until then he lived in Malaysia and swam 25 & 50 metre races. He swam 46.6 (SCM) this weekend though and Jon Rudd, his coach at PL, seems to think he has big potential in the 100 – I suspect Rio will be too soon for him in both 50 & 100 but he could certainly hit 48.5.
As for the others I’d look at either…
Calum Jarvis at Bath University – Switched from Backstroke to Freestyle in 2012/13 and swam 48.7 last year – More a 200 swimmer (1.46) and lacks the raw 50m speed to swim a really fast 100.
Duncan… Read more »
In germany we dont have any good freestyle sprinters on the mens side, noone has a chance to qualify for Rio and thats why i am a bit jealous. In most events we have at least some talents, but in freestyle sprint (and womens 100 back/mens 100 fly/womens 100 breast) we have noone for the future, although we had some promising talents from time to time.
You have a lot of great swimmers, but Proud is in my top 3. I think its extremely difficult to be world class at 50 and 100 at the same time, there are not many who can do it on the mens side. I think for the future it might be better to… Read more »
SCM is of course a completely different event – Ben Proud has been 48.7 in LC though so he isn’t completely without hope in the LC pool haha!
Duncan Scott (1997) has best times (LCM) of 22.78, 49.19 and 1.48.25. Also a 2.01.57 200IM from 2014 (he dropped IM in 2015) and split 52.59 over 100 fly at European Games. Hasn’t swam 400LC since 2013 so his 3.40 SC is all we have to go on.
Lewis Burras (2000) has best times (LCM) of 23.62, 51.29 & 1.53.62. He’s fast improving and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go under 50s in 2016 – Very much reminds me of Kyle Chalmers in his build, he towers over senior British… Read more »
Excuse me Bobo, I’ll try to write it correctly. Manaudou.
No problem. It always makes me laugh because a lot of people write Manadou.
I’m guessing 21.5-26.5 splits?