Chartres (AFP)
Contrary destinies for Charlotte Bonnet and Béryl Gastaldello at the end of the 100m: the first doubled the stake by seizing the last Olympic sesame in play, when the second saw her chances of qualifying in individual for Tokyo soar at the Championships of France swimming, Saturday in Chartres.
Behind Marie Wattel, ticket in pocket on 100 m as on 100 m butterfly since the end of the first phase of Olympic qualification at the end of March, and victorious in 53 sec 34, both Bonnet, second in 53 sec 71, and Gastaldello, third in 54 24 sec, swam under the chronometric criterion set by the blue frame (54.38).
But with Wattel already qualified, there was only room for the best of the two.
Obviously, for Gastaldello, who, since 2018, has recovered from a deep depression and asserted himself as a rising star in French swimming, the blow is hard.
Her round trip completed, and her non-qualification recorded, the sprinter installed in Texas remained in the pool for a long time.
She clung to the starting block for a few moments, took refuge in Wattel's arms, then slowly came out of the water, the last.
A few minutes later, the third step of the podium remained empty, Gastaldello did not cross the mixed zone, and it did not reappear until the beginning of the evening, to continue the lengths of recovery in the swimming pool which had become calm again.
# photo1
- "Pitfalls" -
The blow is all the harder to take for the 26-year-old swimmer as, when the first Olympic qualifying window opened in early December, she immediately grabbed pole position in the queen race.
But Wattel had dislodged it at the last moment, at the end of March in Marseille.
“It's not easy for her,” says Wattel. “Unfortunately, I took her place for a few hundredths in March, and she had to re-mobilize to try to get this qualification in June. It's a shame, because that she was not feeling very well, and on top of that, it is not an advantage not to be able to swim the playoffs. Casually, it can destabilize. I do not know how she could have reacted to that . "
# photo2
Because things went off the rails in the morning in the Chartres swimming pool: the series had to be interrupted after the movable wall of the basin, at the level of the starting area, moved, until it was shrunk by about twenty centimeters for certain water lines.
Under these conditions, in the ladies' 100 m, as in the men's 200 m backstroke, the Olympic qualification was played out in a single race, a series bringing together the ten best entry times and serving as the evening final.
Missing out on a 100m butterfly ticket on Tuesday, "there have been some big pitfalls in recent months, but I'm quite satisfied because I was able to go up the slope and it was very complicated. I had a virus, not the Covid, but I had good training ", then explained Gastaldello.
- A second ticket for Tomac -
“It was a big challenge and unfortunately, she made time to qualify but Charlotte was faster, continues Wattel. I just told her that we would do everything to get a medal in the 4x100m, that that's one of my main goals too. "
Gastaldello, so far in all international long-course individual competitions since 2014, will have a last chance in the 50m on Sunday, but she has never swam as fast as the qualifying time (24.77, personal best in 24.87). .
The joy displayed by Bonnet, an angry fist in the water at the finish, even close to a second from his personal best (52.74 in 2018), contrasted.
"It's a long way from the time I had in mind but I put that aside and I'm happy. I really wanted to swim this 100m at the Games. It's a crazy thing, appreciates the 26-year-old from Nice. Qualified for Tokyo in the 200m since Thursday. I'm trying to really enjoy it because for the last two, three years I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself about what I'm worth and what to give. "
Like Bonnet, the young Mewen Tomac (19) doubled the bet: in addition to the 100m backstroke, he offered himself a ticket for the 200m backstroke (1: 56.82 for 1: 57.50), two races in which Yohann Ndoye Brouard had confirmed his qualification since the end of March.
© 2021 AFP