The French nationals were held last week in Montpellier. World records were set in the 50m and 100m free (more on that below). The times and improvements were sick. Here are the top 2 times for each event, except for the 400m IM and 200m free, in which only one swimmer achieved a top-25 time for 2009:
100m back
Jeremy Stravius - 53.16
Benjamin Stasiulis - 53.27
Jeremy Stravius' personal best time prior to this meet was 55.68 in May 2008. He did not qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Now he has the third best time in the world in 2009. Benjamin Stasiulis swam this event in the Olympics but his time was 55.08, good enough for a 25th place finish. His time improved by nearly 2 seconds and is the 4th best time in the world in 2009.
200m back
Pierre Roger - 1:56.64
Benjamin Stasiulis - 1:57.90
Pierre Roger's best time prior to this meet was 1:58.42 in April 2008. Roger's time in this event at Beijing was 1:59.01, which did not qualify him for the semi-finals. His time in this meet showed an improvement of more than 2 seconds since the Olympics. Stasiulis' best time prior to this meet was 1:58.81 in 2007. He did not qualify for the Olympics in 200m back. Roger and Stasiulis have the 10th and 13th best times in this event in 2009.
200m IM
Darian Townsend - 1:57.03 and 1:58.85
Fabien Horth - 1:59.58
Darian Townsend (South Africa) swam this event in Beijing, recording a personal best time of 1:59.22 and making it to the semi-finals and finishing 11th. He has improved his personal best by 2 seconds since then.
Fabien Horth's best time prior to this meet was 2:02.69 in April 2008. He did not qualify for the Olympics in this event but dropped more than 2 seconds in the past year.
400m IM
Anthony Pannier - 4:16.97
Pannier's best time in this event prior to this meet was 4:23.33 in March 2009. He did not qualify for the Olympics. He improved by more than 6 seconds in one month. That's what I would call a good taper.
100m free
Alain Bernard - 46.94 (WR)
Fred Bousquet - 47.15
There isn't anything I can say about this event that has not been said by many others before. Both of these guys are Olympians and are amazing swimmers who obviously work very hard. Whether or not their results were enhanced by suits is beyond my knowledge of the sport. All I know is they are fast.
Here is a video of the finals, won by Fred Bousquet in a personal best time of 47.15.
Here is the video of the semi-finals where Alain Bernard set the world record of 46.94:
200m free
Ahmed Mathlouthi - 1:47.65
Mathlouthi's (Tunisia) best time prior to this meet was a 1:48.53 in March 2009. He improved by nearly 1 second in this meet.
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