Saint-Raphaël (France) (AFP)

Florent Manaudou took a step towards the Tokyo Games by swimming over 50 m for the time requested during the first phase of Olympic qualifying, which will last three months, at the French Championships, Friday in Saint-Raphaël, but the clock leaves it. on his hunger.

The 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 Olympic vice-champion of the one-way won in 21 sec 73, below the 21 sec 80 set to claim to pocket as quickly as possible his ticket for the Olympics-2020 postponed by a year under the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, he is not automatically qualified: to do this he must remain the fastest French swimmer over the distance until the end of this first Olympic qualification window, which has just opened and which will close on March 21, 2021, according to the new system set up by the tricolor management.

"I'm not going to consider myself qualified. At 21 sec 4 / 10th, I was almost sure to be qualified, that's also why I wanted to swim fast. There, with this weather, there is great chances but it's not sure, "said Manaudou, frustrated at being stuck in time terms twenty months after his return to swimming after two and a half years away from the pools, spent especially in handball.

- "Slap" -

"I stopped three years (from the 2016 post-Olympics to the spring of 2019 precisely, editor's note), I did handball, and after training for ten weeks, I did exactly that time in the playoffs in Rome (in June 2019), with all that involved the stress of a first competition, "he recalls.

"It's clearly not enough. It's not horrible either, but for me, it's a slap in the face, because between 21 sec 4 and 21 sec 7, there is still a world", compare the neo-thirties sprinter, whose best time over 50 m since he dived again is 21 sec 56 in January.

"I haven't mastered the 35m swim yet, I have it over 15, 20m, and after that it crumbles a bit," he describes.

This disappointment, to his liking, had two immediate effects: to push Manaudou to give up the 100m on Sunday, but above all to encourage him to work extra hard in training in the coming months.

"There, I'm ready. I want to be afraid of nothing in training, to be in pain. I'm going to shit. I know I need that," he says.

In the morning series, Manaudou was nine hundredths behind the requested time (21.89).

- Bonnet fails at 2 hundredths -

However, Laure's younger brother only swam in the Var basin his fifth and sixth 50m long course since his return to competition.

Its first two date back to June 2019 in Rome, the next two in January in Luxembourg, before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

Another disappointment, moreover, for Charlotte Bonnet: the 2018 European champion of the 200 m let slip the qualifying time for Tokyo for two hundredths on her favorite race (1: 56.65 against 1: 56.63 requested), the day after her third place on 100 m.

Mewen Tomac (19 years old), a young growth in French swimming, got closer to twelve hundredths of the minimum over 100 m backstroke (53.46 against 53.34).

These French Championships, exceptionally rescheduled in December because of the Covid-19, mark the starting point of the race for Olympic tickets for tricolor swimming.

At the end of this first period of three months, at the end of March, those who have achieved a time corresponding to an entry in the world final will obtain their sesame, within the limit of one qualified per race.

The last tickets will be distributed in a second time at the 2021 French Championships, mid-June in Chartres, according to less accurate time minima, and within the limit of two qualified per race.

© 2020 AFP