Chartres (pps) The EDF European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres experienced their big highlight on Saturday: eight days after her new World Record in the 800m freestyle (8:01.06min) at the French national championships in Angers, 23-year-old Camille Muffat set her second World Record in the European final of the women’s 400m freestyle clocking 3:54.85 minutes. The 2012 Olympic Champion beat the three-and-a-half year old time of Great Britain’s Joanne Jackson by seven hundredths of a second. Muffat’s gold was also the 100th medal for France in the history of the Short Course Europeans.
Laure Manaudou, the 2004 Olympic Champion in the 400m free and one of Muffat’s predecessors, provided the most emotional moment of the third competition day in Chartres. The 26-year-old, whom many expect to retire imminently, celebrated once again a European title in the 50m backstroke (26.78sec). At the victory ceremony, Manaudou had her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Manon in her arms.
The swimmers from the host country won their third gold medal of the day in the newly introduced 4x50m mixed freestyle relay. Prior to the last 13 events, France tops the medal table with eight gold, two silver and nine bronze medals, followed by Hungary (6-3-1), Denmark (4-4-0), Russia (3-4-1), and Italy (3-2-2).
20-year-old Vladimir Morozov stood out among the new Russian generation winning his fourth medal in Chartres. He clocked 45.68 seconds in the 100m free, the best time in the post-high-tech era!
Hungary’s 2012 overall World Cup Champion Katinka Hosszu (100m individual medley in 58.83sec) and her team-mate Laszlo Cseh (200m butterfly in 1:52.11min) both celebrated their third individual gold medals in Chartres. It was Cseh’s 16th European short course title in his great career. As expected, Italy gained two titles on Saturday, Gregorio Paltrinieri in the 1,500m free (14:27.78min) and Fabio Scozzoli in the 50m breaststroke (57.25sec).
Uschi Vogel
SID Sportmarketing & Communication Services GmbH