Kenneth To of Australia and Florent Manaudou of France each broke their respective country’s national record in the 100 individual medley at the Doha World Cup today.
To went a 51.19 to win the 100 IM today in Doha, Qatar. In doing so he lowered his own Australian national record of 51.38, which he had set in December 2012 at the Short Course World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. In that race he finished second to Ryan Lochte (who had set the world record for the event with a 50.71 in the semi-finals).
Manaudou finished fourth in today’s final but his 52.16 was the best time ever put up by a French swimmer in the 100 IM. He beat a record set in 2008 by Antoine Galavtine at the French National Championships in Angers. These were the days of the super suits; five years later Manaudou’s swim puts textile back on top.
100IM is so fun, if it was up to me I’d make it mandatory for every single swimmer to enter it 🙂
Too bad Jérémy Stravius hasn’t swum the 100 IM yesterday. He has the perfect profile for this race. He’s a sprinter, loves short course, has huge underwaters and 25 meters of breaststroke are enough for him. His 22.58 in the 50 fly and 23.15 as lead-off on backstroke show he’s in great shape. I’m sure he could have swum 51 low. I hope he will swim it next December.