Rather a specialist in freestyle or butterfly swimming, Béryl Gastaldello surprised the favorites by winning the 100m backstroke final, Saturday in Angers during the French Short Course Championships.

Gastaldello won in 56 sec 18/100th, setting a new French record. She beat backstroke specialists Pauline Mahieu and Analia Pigrée, relegated to more than a second.

She offered herself a second crown a few moments later after her victory in the 50m freestyle final, a success acquired in 23 sec 84 thanks in particular to a huge second cast.

Maxime Grousset won a fourth title since the start of the competition. After his victories in the 100m butterfly, 50m freestyle and 100m medley, he won on Saturday in the 50m butterfly.

On the other hand, he was beaten in the 200m freestyle by Roman Fuchs. Leading at 150 m, the New Caledonian ended up giving in at the end of the race.

“I knew that Maxime was going to leave quickly, the plan was to leave with him,” Fuchs explained to BeIn Sports. “He swam a lot of races this week, it helped me beat him at the end.”

In the other races, Charlotte Bonnet beat her own French record in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2 min 20 sec 64/100.

Juliette Marchand won the first French champion title of her career in the 200m butterfly but fell just half a second short of qualifying for the European Short Course Championships which will take place in December in Romania.

Results of the finals of the French Short Course Swimming Championships played on Saturday:

WOMEN

800m freestyle

1. Anastasiia Kirpichnikova 8:14.72

2. Valentine Leclercq 8:29.38

3. Lisa For 8:35.24

200m butterfly

1. Juliette Marchand 2:08.18

2. Lara Grangeon 2:08.54

3. Lilou Ressencourt 2:09.76

100 m two

1. Béryl Gastaldello 56.18

2. Pauline Mahieu 57.35

3. Analia Pigrée 57.55

200m breaststroke

1. Charlotte Bonnet 2:20.64

2. Lucie Vasquez 2:22.84

3. Justine Delmas 2:23.86

50m freestyle

1. Béryl Gastaldello 23.84

2. Analia Pigrée 24.55

3. Lison Nowaczyk 24.68

MEN

50m butterfly

1. Maxime Grousset 22.34

2. Stanislas Huille 22.55

3. Nicolas Vermorel 22.85

400m medley

1. Emilien Mattenet 4:08.12

2. Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 4:09.96

3. Anthony Mark 4:13.40

100m breaststroke

1. Carl Aitkaci 57.89

2. Kacper Pastula 58.62

3. Lucien Vergnes 58.63

200m freestyle

1. Roman Fuchs 1:42.16

2. Maxime Grousset 1:42.41

3. Yann Le Goff 1:44.17