Marchand Ticks Home Olympics Box in 4:10 & Terebo Becomes A Sub-59 Pioneer
World champion and record holder Léon Marchand checked into his first target event for his home-Olympics with a 4:10.62 shy-of-taper victory in the 400m medley at French Elite Championships in Chartres this evening.
Not the stuff of his outer-orbit 4:02.50 World record of last year but this is not Paris and the battle that will unfold six weeks from now in the ultimate cauldron of swimming challenge.
Coached by Bob Bowman in Arizona then a touch in Texas on the way to a return home to France for final preparations, Marchand, racing for Dauphins Toulouse, raced through splits of 55.26, 1:03.84, 1:09.60 and 1:01.92.
Mentor to Michael Phelps and now Marchand, Bowman is on the France Olympic team staff and about to guide his latest extraordinary charge through a towering program that looks set to including the 200 and 400IM, the 200 ‘fly, the 200 breaststroke and at least two relays.
The end of the first 100m on butterfly today was where any sense of a race with prior splits dissipated into the needs of the mission at hand: qualification. Job done.
Those prior splits:
54.66; 1:56.64 (1:01.98) 3:04.28 (1:07.64) 4:02.50 (58.22) Marchand Fukuoka 2023
54.92; 1:56.49 (1:01.57) 3:07.05 (1:10.56) 4:03.84 (56.79) Phelps Beijing 2008
55.54; 1:58.66 (1:03.12) 3:05.94 (1:07.28) 4:04.28 (58.34) Marchand Budapest 2022
The two men closest to him with something to tell the grandchildren one day were Emilien Mattenet, Charleville-Mezieres Natation, in 4:16.22, and Algerian club mate of Marchand’s in France, Jaouad Syoud, in 4:19.91.
Terebo Passes Gastaldello To Take Down French 100 Back Mark in Pioneering 58.79, Both Grab Home-Games Tickets
Emma Terebo, racing for Amiens Metropole as national training centre squad member, became the first Frenchwoman inside 59sec in the 100m backstroke, her 58.79 shattering her previous best of 59.64 from 2022.
Out in 28.64, Terebo, 23, shadowed a 28.51 surprise from Beryl Gastaldello, of Etoiles, at then turn before returning in 30.15 for a record that saw her leapfrog French legend and pioneer Laure Manaudou and on the all-time French rankings.
Gastaldello held on for silver in 59.17, another big personal best and a maiden voyage inside the minute that grants the host Olympic nation two women in the event at a home Olympics with reserve strength for the medley relay in the mix.
Manaudou, the Olympic freestyle champion and backstroke podium placer of Athens 2004 clocked 59.50 in 2008. The French record stood there for 15 years until Pauline Mahieu broke the standard last year in 59.30.
Mahieu finished fourth today in 59.64, third place to the winner’s training partner teenager Mary-Ambre Moluh in 59.29.
Tomac and Ndoye-Brouard Duel Gets Both Inside 53 For Passes To The Paris Pool
In a thrilling duel that epitomised the truest meaning of stroke-for-stroke, the race split by 0.02 by the close of battle, Mewen Tomac and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard made it a full set of 100m back qualifiers for the Olympic home nation.
A snap at the turn, the gap between the rivals, respectively from Amiens Metropole and Dauphins D’Annecy (and national training centre) but now France Olympic teammates, was all down to the flick of the last wrists into the wall and pressure on the pad:
25.85; 27.03 – 52.88 – Tomac
25.85; 27.05 – 52.90 – Ndoye-Brouard
The 2010 French record stands yet at a sizzling 52.11 to Camille Lacourt. Third place in Chartes today went to the teenager with a name fit for guardians, Michel Arkhangelsky, of Antibes, in 53.70.
The battle for French 4x200m free Berths alongside Marchand
Hadrien Salvan, Stade de Vanves and national training centre, took the 200m freestyle in 1:46.72, the next five all on 1:47s, Marchand, the swiftest of all of them, absent from the race but available for relay duty come the hour in Paris.
They flowed into the wall like this: Yann Le Goff 1:47.05; Wissam-Amazigh Yebba, 1:47.21; and then three of the winner’s training partners, Roman Fuchs, 1:47.24; Nans Mazellier, 1:47.33; and Enzo Tesic, 1:47.57.
In other finals, Cyrielle Duhamel topped the women’s 400m medley in 4:40.96 and the women’s 200m freestyle was won by Lucile Tessariol in 1:59.29 ahead of 400m winner on day 1, Anastasia Kirpichnikova, in 1:59.88. Marina Jehl took third place in 2:00.04.