Budapest (AFP)

Two months before the Tokyo Games (July 23 - August 8) where he aims to win back Olympic gold, Florent Manaudou has not even climbed on the European podium in the 50m, only fifth in 21 sec 81, Sunday in Budapest. .

Second time in the series (21.86) then in the semi-finals on Saturday, Manaudou (30) was unable to hold his place in the final, for his first international long-course championship since his return to competition in spring 2019, after two and a half years of break.

It was the unexpected Finn Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (32 years old) who won, in 21 sec 61, ahead of the Briton Benjamin Proud (21.69) and the Greek Kristian Gkolomeev (21.73).

The day before, the 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 Olympic vice-champion of the one-way ticket had yet signed his best time of the season (21.72 so far), also the second fastest 50 m of his second career, in 21 sec. 67 (behind his 21.56 in January 2020 in Luxembourg).

And he was hoping to lower the clock even further to "about a tenth" on Sunday night.

But the needle is inappropriately turned back in the opposite direction, at the end of a not extremely fast final.

- Sensations out of sync -

When hot, Manaudou, disappointed to swim "slower than yesterday (Saturday) especially", described feelings out of step with his result.

"I thought I was going well in the race, and the weather is not very good. I really have to see the pictures," he reacts.

"I thought I had a decent race, to have worked on what I had to work on. Maybe by putting a little more, I pass a little through, he wonders again. There is only fifteen hundredths of a difference with yesterday (14 in fact, editor's note) but it's a shame all the same. "

"A 50m, it feels. But between the time that I felt and the time that I did, there is a big difference", summarizes Manaudou, removing any tension possibly due to an international final.

Is there anything to worry about, two months away from the Olympics?

For comparison, we will remember that in 2016, Manaudou had swam in 21 sec 73 to afford European gold at the end of May in London, before seeing Olympic gold escape him for only one hundredth, in 21 sec. 41 (21.40 for Ervin), a little over two months later.

This is precisely what he recalls when leaving the Hungarian basin.

"In the year of Rio, I swim 21 sec 7/10 at the European Championships. It doesn't mean anything, these are one-day races, we'll see at the end of it. I'll give everything I can give" , he promises.

- Henic eleven years later -

For the Marseille sprinter, the European meeting was only the first in a series of four competitions in one month, and at least ten 50m, before the Olympics.

The meetings in Monaco (May 29 and 30), Canet-en-Roussillon (June 1 and 2) will follow, and the French Championships in Chartres, from June 15 to 20.

Without the pressure of Olympic qualification for him, who is one of the five blue swimmers who pocketed their sesame at the end of March at the end of the first qualifying phase imagined by the French staff.

"It's a stage, there are still a lot of races," confirms Manaudou, who had only racked up ten 50m in the long course before Budapest.

Maxime Grousset, the other Frenchman entered in the final of the 50m, finished seventh, in 22 sec 02.

Eleven years after her first, and until then only, European podium in the long course, and ten after her only world podium in the 50m pool, two bronze medals in the 50m butterfly, Mélanie Hénie won the medal of money over that non-Olympic distance.

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Henique (28), Olympic ticket in his pocket over 50 m, completed her race in 25 sec 46. Behind the Dutch Ranomi Kromowidjojo (25.30), but ahead of the Danish Emilie Beckmann (25.59).

French swimming thus ends the Hungarian competition with five medals, after gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 100m for Marie Wattel, bronze in the 100m backstroke for Yohann Ndoye Brouard, and bronze also obtained by the 4x100. female m.

© 2021 AFP