Chartres (AFP)
Charlotte Bonnet and Jordan Pothain will swim the 200m in Tokyo: the first, unhappy during the first phase of Olympic qualification, overcame the stress and the second was reborn at the last minute at the French Swimming Championships, Thursday in Chartres.
The long hugs shared with her teammates and her companion, the Swiss swimmer Jérémy Desplanches, do not lie.
"It's a huge relief (...) I was so apprehensive and under pressure in relation to this Olympic qualification," blows the 26-year-old from Nice, victorious in the 200 m in 1 min 56 sec 67 for 1 min 57 sec 28 fixed by the blue frame.
This is because throughout the first Olympic selection window open from December to March, during which a time equivalent to a world-level final (1: 56.63 over 200 m) opened the doors of Tokyo at the earliest. , Bonnet had narrowly failed three times.
First for two hundredths in Saint-Raphaël in December (1: 56.65), then for 33 in Nice at the beginning of February (1: 56.96), and finally for fourteen in Marseille at the end of March (1: 56.77).
Then she had experienced one more disillusionment at the European Championships in mid-May in Budapest: coming with the assumed ambition to keep the European gold won in 2018 over the distance, she was finally ranked fourth (1: 56.55) .
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- "So much stress" -
"It's hard to take, she confessed then. Mentally, it's hard not to be rewarded for everything I have invested in training for years."
"Clearly, with all the opportunities I have had, the disappointment of not getting on the podium (in Budapest), going back to work each time, with my head in the handlebars, at one point it gets stuck," she admits. Thursday evening.
From her 200m in Chartres, "I had the impression of playing a final in a major championship because I was so stressed," she says.
"There was so much at stake that I couldn't put everything we worked on as I wanted, I'm not doing a great race and I tear myself away at the end to do this p .. . chrono, she continues. I must have lost several kilos of ball that I was dragging ... ".
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"I'm 1 min 56 sec, there are hundreds of girls who have done it this year, it's still a long time away from the best, far from my expectations, but I'm going to be content today. that I have qualified for my third Games and not everyone can say that, "said Bonnet.
Pothain, he comes back from even further.
Olympic finalist over 400 m in 2016, but in serious difficulty since then, and not qualified for the 2017 or 2019 Worlds, the 27-year-old Grenoblois has regained his form and his feelings just in time.
- "So crazy" -
Winner of the 200 m in 1 min 46 sec 93, for 1 min 47 sec 02 requested, he offered himself the first qualifying place, ahead of Jonathan Atsu (1: 46.97), who obtained the second sesame in play.
Pothain hadn't swam so fast in an individual 200m since the previous Olympic selections in March 2016 (1: 46.81).
But he had given a hint of his revival at the start of the 4x200m in mid-May in Budapest by launching the French relay in 1 min 46 sec 91.
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"I did it, it's crazy! I savor all the more after everything that has happened since Rio. It's a nice reward," he smiled, his voice trembling with emotion.
And to think that he still peaked in 1 min 51 sec 02 at the end of March in Marseille, where he had been seen with his head down and as if helpless in the stands.
"During all these years, I did not let go, I fought. I doubted really strongly at times, several times I thought to stop because I was going straight into the wall and I could not find no solutions. Finally by dint of self-sacrifice, it pays, "recalls the Grenoblois, who joined Fabrice Pellerin in Nice during the Olympiad.
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"It's a rather special feeling because it was really horrible, and there, it's so crazy that it would erase everything that happened," summarizes Pothain.
Halfway through the competition, twelve French swimmers pocketed an individual ticket for Tokyo.
© 2021 AFP