To gold in the 100m butterfly, her first individual international coronation, Marie Wattel added silver in the 100m at the European Championships on Saturday in Budapest, two months before the Tokyo Olympics. Florent Manaudou grabbed a few hundredths on his way to the final of the 50m. Proof that Wattel, soon to be 24, is no longer this young swimmer who doubted so much of herself and who was paralyzed by stress in major events? To afford the silver medal of the queen race, which she still tames, is not enough to satisfy her. Line 4 after setting the fastest time in the semi-finals the day before, the French sprinter equaled her personal best, clocking 53 sec 32. Seventh at the turn, she had the best return. But she was beaten by the Dutchwoman Femke Heemskerk,victorious in 53 sec 05.
So much so that hot, the disappointment. “It's been two, three days that I allow myself to believe in the double 100 pap-100 crawl, it's something that makes me dream. I would have liked to have had a second Marseillaise, just for me this time, admits Wattel, in reference to his shared gold medal in the 100 m butterfly on Tuesday (with Ntountounaki). I always want more, I felt capable of going for the gold, so obviously there is a little bit of disappointment. In the end, I know that in a few days, I will be very happy with my competition. I certainly don't want to be satisfied with that. I want to continue to progress, to try to go higher, further. I don't want to let go. But while waiting for the ceremony, Femke (Heemskerk) told me: "I know you are disappointed,but believe me, I am ten years older than you, and you have to take advantage of each podium, otherwise you will bite your fingers. "I must take advantage anyway, I must not be too hard on myself, otherwise I will regret it. "
Manaudou in 21 sec 67
Qualified for the 50m final scheduled for Sunday alongside Maxime Grousset (8th time, 21.95), Manaudou (30), at the start of a series of four competitions in one month, had a smile on his face. In 21 sec 67, he had just swam his fastest 50m of the season, also his second best since his return to swimming in the spring of 2019 after two and a half years of break, behind his 21 sec 56 in January 2020 in Luxembourg. “It always revolves around 21 sec 7/10 but it's below. It's better than in Marseille (21.72 at the end of March), yet I'm in poorer shape and unshaven, ”appreciates the 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 Olympic vice-champion of the one-way trip, who stumbled on this bar since the post-containment recovery. And to add: "It's nice when I look at the time,especially since I have a little control over the end. I'm happy to be able to handle things during my race, it's been a while since this happened to me. I'm happy to do that in the semi-finals of the European Championships, even if it's still a training competition for the Olympics. It's cool to be able to swim fast with the competition nearby. ”
It was the Greek Kristian Gkolomeev who was the fastest in the semi-finals, in 21 sec 60. Behind Manaudou, author of the second fastest time, follow the Finn Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21.72), the Dutch Thom de Boer (21.80) and Briton Benjamin Proud (21.84).
Mélanie Hénique won the final of the 50m butterfly - a non-Olympic race - with the best time (25.53).
Not Wattel (26.07, 9th time).
In the 200 m backstroke, won by the Russian Evgeny Rylov (1: 54.46), he missed four hundredths from the young Yohann Ndoye Brouard (20) to win bronze as in the 100 m backstroke on Thursday (4th in 1: 56.37).
Antoine Herlem, for his very first international championship, was placed last (1: 58.64).
Like Cyrielle Duhamel (21) in the 200m medley final (2: 13.22).
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Manaudou in the 50m final with the 2nd fastest time, his best of the season