Agnel Battles Through Ilness to Final in 200 Free; Stravius Continues to Roll in France

Aidan Pongrace is an American high school student who just-so-happens to be studying and training abroad for his senior year in Rennes, France, the host of this year’s French National Championships. He is a member of the legendary NCAP team in the Washington D.C. area, and has previously written for the Washington Post’s ‘Reach for the Wall’ swimming website.

It appears that a stomach bug is going around the swimmers at this week’s Championnats de France. Yannick Agnel was among the 20-25 swimmers who have been hit with the bug, and according to one of the meet officials he was vomiting this morning before his prelims swim. Nevertheless, the French once again put on a show at the Brequiny pool this evening.

The night began with the women’s final of the 50 back. While she says it isn’t her specialty, Cloe Credville continued her winning streak in the backstroke events and completed her sweep with her third backstroke title of the meet (as long as we leave out the Hungarians). Third place finisher in the women’s 100 free, Olympic Nice Natation’s Beryl Gastaldello took second in the event. There were no qualifiers for Barcelona in this event.

Jeremy Stravius continued to light up the pool in the men’s 100 fly semi final. This was his fourth event of the meet and he showed no signs of breaking his winning streak, as he is the top seed going into finals with a 52.59. He was the only swimmer under 53 this morning in what was the top time in France this year. However, Spain’s Rafael Perez Munoz didn’t make it easy for him. While Stravius led at the turn, Munoz came back in the last 15 meters to challenge for the win. Stravius, with a good finish, held off Munoz who finished in 52.71. Romain Sassot won heat one in 53.39 while Belgium’s Yoris Grandejean took second in 53.75.

Stravius, who swum the 100 fly and 200 free tonight, ended up scratching the 200 back leaving the door wide open for dual citizen, Eric Ress, to qualify for worlds granted he gets under the 1:58.48 FINA A Standard. Heat one saw Hungarian, David Verrastzo pull of the win in 2:02.93 just ahead of Nathan Bonnel. Eric Ress and Olympian, Benjamin Stasiulis swam in heat two and posted the top two times of the night. While Ress led until the 150-meter mark, Stasiulis overtook him to win in 2:00.90.

The women’s breaststroke continued its streak of no qualifiers as no woman even broke 2:30 in the final. Coralie Dobral won the even in 2:30.39.

The men’s 200 free semi-final saw Stravius dominate the first heat. With a nice breakout, he led the pack from start to finish to win in 1:48.94. Theo Fuchs out of lane 5 drafted off of Stravius and challenged him on the last 50 and took second in 1:49.31. Yannick Agnel dispelled all doubts in the second heat. While he was sick in the morning and very may well have been still, he dominated the second heat to finish in 1:47.28; he was the only man to break 1:48 in the semis. Gregory Mallet tried but couldn’t get past the Olympic champion yet nevertheless touched in the second best time of the night in 1:48.38. This is the hallmark of many great champions across the sporting spectrum: the ability to persevere through difficult circumstances, including illnesses.

The women’s 200 free semi saw Olympic Nice Natation, once again; take the top spot for finals. Camille Muffat took names in the second heat and destroyed the field to post the top time in the world this year in a time of 1:55.69. In my own biased opinion, I think she must have had Ledecky and Franklin’s impressive 1:56’s from the Arena Mesa Grand Prix in mind during her swim. Coralie Balmy tried her best to keep up but finished two seconds behind Muffat to take 2^nd in 1:57.67.  Eighteen-year-old Charlotte Bonnet, also out of Olympic Nice Natation, won the first heat in 1:57.70.

The night ended with the 4×100 medley relay that saw Olympians, Frederick Bousquet, Florent Manoudou, and Camille Lacourt come together to destroy the field for CN Marseilles.