Yohann Ndoye Brouard Outduels Mewen Tomac at French Elite Champs
Yohann Ndoye Brouard won the men’s 100m backstroke title at the French Elite Championships after pulling away from Mewen Tomac on the second 50.
The six-day meet in Limoges is the premier selection competition for the World Championships in Budapest in June though France is using a hybrid selection model with various meets considered.
Ndoye Brouard – the European joint bronze medallist – trailed Tomac by 0.01 at the halfway point before a 27.22 second 50 propelled him to the top of the podium and to fifth in the world rankings.
Tomac was 0.27 adrift in 53.72 with both men well within the worlds qualification time of 54.03.
Emma Terebo won the women’s race in 59.64, 0.03secs ahead of Mary-Amber Moluh who set an age group record of 59.67. Again both women were well inside the cut.
Belgium’s Florine Gaspard won the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:07.77, which is just three tenths outside the FINA A standard. Adele Blanchetiere was second in 1:08.76. Olympian Cyrielle Duhamel was well back in fifth.
Hadrien Salvan booked a spot at Worlds but getting under the cut in the men’s 200 free. He went 1:46.84 to win the event and nip under the A standard of 1:47.06. Second was Roman Fuchs in 1:47.20. Jordan Pothain, one of two swimmers to take part in the event at the Tokyo Olympics, was fifth in 1:49.10. (The other, Jonathan Atsu, did not take part in the event.)
Tomac went 1:47.75 in prelims, the third-quickest time, before scratching the final to focus on the 100 back. Belgium’s Sebastien de Meulemeester went 1:48.62 in the morning, a time that would’ve been fourth in the A final. Jeremy Desplanches of Switzerland also swam the morning prelims before scratching finals.
Russian Anastasia Kirpitchnikova won for a second straight day in the women’s 1,500 meters. Swimming under the French federation’s FFN banner, she blitzed the field in 15:56.86, just six seconds off the national record she set at the Tokyo Olympics. The was nearly 44 seconds clear of the chasers and the only one under the FINA A standard of 16:29.57.
Adeline Furst was the first Frenchwoman to the wall in 16:40.65. Third was American high schooler Alexa Reyna in 16:42.04.