Henique Nearly Hits Same Record-Breaking 50 Free Mark In Finals

2020 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, December 10th – Sunday, December 13th 
• Saint-Raphaël, France
• LCM (50m)
• Olympic Qualifying Meet
• French Olympic Qualifying Procedures
• SwimSwam Preview
• Start Lists
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap
• Live Results

Day 4 Finals Highlights

This morning we saw Melanie Henique produce a new French national record of 24.34 in the 50m freestyle heats. That time not only crushed her previous PB of 24.86, but it also cleared the stiff French qualifying standard of 24.53 needed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. You can read bout Henique’s morning swim here.

Come tonight’s final, the 27-year-old nearly hit the same mark, topping the field in a time of 24.39. That still dips under the OLY qualifying standard and checks-in as Henique’s second-fastest time ever.

Behind Henique tonight was Charlotte Bonnet, with the 200m freestyle winner here punching a result of 24.80 to Beryl Gastaldello‘s bronze medal-worthy 24.92. Both women will need to try again at Olympic qualification at future meets.

The night actually started off with the women’s 1500m free, which saw Russian swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova log a shiny new national standard with her winning effort of 15:53.18.

Kirpichnikova, who trains in France, had never before been under 16:16.04, her personal best from last year. In fact, no Russian woman had ever ventured under the 16:00 barrier before tonight, with Kirpichnikova’s massive mark overtaking the former national record that’s been on the books for 17 years. You can read more about Kirpichnikova’s record-breaking swim here.

It was a race that came right down to the touch, as is usually the case, in the men’s 50m fly, with Serguei Comte getting it done for gold in 23.88. That held off a charging Mehdy Metella, whose shoulder appears to be healing nicely from his surgery earlier this year. Metella came in at 23.95 for silver, while Marseille teammate Nicolas Vermorel was just a fingernail behind in 23.96 to round out the top 3.

Additional Notes:

• Although Leon Marchand led the men’s 400m IM field this morning in a near-personal best time of 4:16.81, it was Emilien Mattenet who wound up claiming the top prize in tonight’s final race. Mattenet touched in 4:18.09, while Marchand was rendered runner-up in 4:19.05. The French Swimming Federation (FFN)-mandated Tokyo 2020 consideration standard is a much quicker 4:13.33.
• Swiss swimmer Roman Mityukov was tonight’s 200m freestyle winner, with the 20-year-old producing a time of 1:47.80 to beat Frenchman Jordan Pothain by just .09. The top-seeded swimmer from the morning, Jonathan Atsu, was slower than his lane 4-landed heats swim of 1:47.47 to settle to bronze in 1:48.02.