Impressive in the 50m freestyle, Florent Manaudou was in great shape Thursday at the French Swimming Championships, achieving the two best world performances of the year. Under the eyes of his sister Laure, Manaudou made an impression in the morning series with a time of 21 sec 56 before winning the final in 21 sec 62. He beat Maxime Grousset by 16 hundredths.
“This title is a pleasure because it’s been a while since I had one (2020, editor’s note)”, declared Manaudou. “I’m a little bit disappointed not to be swimming a bit faster, but I wanted to change things up and see how it reacts.” Manaudou said he was unhappy with his departure but satisfied to have been able to compete against Maxime Grousset, winner of the 100m freestyle earlier in the week.
“Maxime is not just anyone. It’s one of my biggest competitions. He’s in full swing, it’s very cool. We get along very well and we try to show the youngest that we are still there”, he appreciated. The two sprinters will meet over this distance at the Fukuoka World Championships (July 23-30).
In great shape, the 2012 Olympic champion had already been very fast in the 100m freestyle heats on Tuesday with a time of 48 sec 12/100th, a time he had not achieved since 2016. He then did the deadlock on the 100m final to favor the 50m.
