French star Florent Manaudou had a strong start to his season over the weekend in Compiegne posting a 46.48 to win the men’s 100 freestyle. That time currently ranks him third in the world behind Brazilian Cesar Cielo who posted a 46.08 at the Jose Finkel Trophy and Chad le Clos who recorded a 46.24 at the World Cup in Dubai.
Manaudou had a fantastic short course season in 2013 posting a lifetime best time of 45.04 at the French Short Course Championships, just missing Amaury Leveaux‘s world record of 44.94. He was not able to compete at the 2013 European Short Course Championships due to a shoulder injury which he sustained at the national championships.
His time from the French championships topped the world rankings and was over half a second faster then Australian James Magnussen who posted a 45.60.
His time from this weekend is the second fastest 100 freestyle of his career and is much faster than the 47.27 which he recorded at the same meet just a year ago.
Manaudou told the French paper L’Equipe that he was happy with how he swam for the amount of training he has done and the shape he is in.
The Frenchman also posted a time of 21.83 in the 50 freestyle.
I can’t really get excited about short course races. Perhaps I am just biased and should give it a chance.
46.48 is the second fastest time of his career?! Almost 1.5 seconds slower than his fastest??
I believe at SC Worlds, the 100 free is on the last day. So is the 100 IM. Will be verrry interesting to see how things shake out between Manaudou and Morozov.
Cielo x Manadou x Morozov..I think the only guys who went sub-46 textile… correct me If I´m wrong..
Gilot was 45.97 behind Cielo in 2010.Magnussen was sub46 textile too.
If Manaudou will be in his best shape, i think he will be alone in 100free.The battle will be in 50.If Cielo wants the WR, he will need his old start to do that.
I didn’t think about the 100Free being the same night as the 100 IM. Now the question is which one will Manadou swim. He can medal in both, but maybe has a slight better chance at gold in the free versus the IM.
Also, I was thinking that Lochte could swim the 100 free individually but would have the same problem as above. He is still the favorite for the gold in the IM, so my guess he sticks with it, but his best splits on the relays in 2012 showed that he would be sub 46 in the 100 free, but still would not be faster than Manadou’s, Cielo’s, and Morozov’s best.
It’s going to be a great 100… Read more »
I think lochte would have no problem handling the double 100 free- 100 IM; he has done tougher doubles in the past; however, I don’t think he would medal in 100 free though.
There was talk some time ago that Mr. Leveaux was trying to arrange training with Yannick Agnel, following his change of base of training from Baltimore to France. Did that pan out? Amaury Leveaux was always an interesting sprinter, in that he also swam the 200 m freestyle, at least in relays.
Nothing against Leveaux, butit always makes me happy when a rubber wrapped record goes down, so bon chance Monsieur Manaudou!
46.48 is a very good time for his first race of the short course season.
He was in 46.62 last year at the same meet but it was in late November. And then he swam 45.04 at the French championships.
In my opinion he has a very good chance in the coming weeks to crush the suited world record of 44.94 by Amaury Leveaux.