Maxime Grousset led a top-four sub-22sec 50m freestyle final on fifth and penultimate day at French nationals in Montpellier, his 21.68 just 0.01sec ahead of a huge personal best from Nikita Baez. 

Both were inside the cut for a ticket to the dash at the Singapore World Championships showcase next month, Rafael Fente Damers and Nans Mazellier, a snap just 0.02sec shy of the mark on 21.98, extended the all-time French ranking list of sub-22sec sprinters from 7 to 10.

Racing for Clichy 92 and coached by Michel Chrétien at the French Performance Centre at Bois de Vincennes east of Paris, Grousset clocked 21.73 in heats and has a career best of 21.57, from 2022 Worlds in Budapest. Both efforts ranked him way ahead of the 22.08 career high that Baez, of Lyon Natation Metropole, clocked in heats. 

Before that, Baez, 25 this year, had improved to a best of 22.11 in March this year at the Meeting National du Grand Chalon at Chalon-Sur-Saone.

If Grousset stayed at all-time No30 performance on the French all-time ranking - and 20th in textile suits - Baez rose from 162nd to 153rd in heats and then catapulted himself up the tree to 55th as sixth swiftest Frenchman ever. 

Jolly Day For Joly

At the far end of the scale beyond all the events with turns in them, Damien Joly, Stade de Vanves, is still going strong over 30 lengths freestyle, his 14:58.78 victory over 1500m in his 33rd year testament to the longer-career version of going the distance. The cut set at 15.00.99, Joly is on his jolly way to another World Championships next month. 

With David Aubry having withdrawn, no others came close to the cut, open water ace Marc-Antoine Olivier, Dunkerque, the closest in 15:20.26, Emile Vincent, Chambéry, home in 15:22.56 for bronze, and American 17-year-old Colin Jacobs, racing for Antibes, on 15:24.74.

Mahieu At The Double

Next up, in the women's 200m back, the cut set at 2.10.39, Pauline Mahieu, Canet 66, clinched the 100-200m double well inside the target, her 2:08.28, a class apart. The podium was completed by Lou-Anne Guiton, Stade Béthune Pélican, 2:11.66, and clubmate Bertille Cousson, 2:12.19.

No Tickets In Three Finals

French record holder (25.17) Mélanie Henique, CN Marseille, has matched or sprinted inside the 25.75 Singapore cut 38 times in her career, and Marie Wattel, Montpellier, has raced inside that target seven times, her best a 25.33, the eighth best French performance all-time behind Henique's best seven. And yet, today both fell shy of the A cut, Henique on 25.97, Wattel on 26.19, the bronze to Jeanne de Murcia, AC Molsheim Mutzig, in 26.35. 

Aiming for a target time of 2.09.68 Antoine Marc, of Mulhouse, fell a second shy in taking the title in 2:10.78, with Antoine Viquerat, Racing Club de France, on 2:11.99, and Corentin Mouton, Caen, on 2:13.19 just ahead of Japan's Yamato Okadome, racing for A Asec Natation and home in 2:13.30.

The other final of the day in which there were no Singapore ticket-takers was  the women's 50m breaststroke. The French cut set at 30.35, Belgium's Florine Gaspard, on 30.64, led two 31-sec swims from those vying for the eye of selectors, Giulia Rossi-Bene, Canet 66, home in 31.24, Chloé Braun, of Dauphins Toulouse, on 31.55.

• RESULTS IN FULL

Also In The June Vortex

• Aussie A Squad Off For Some California Dreaming At August Pro Swim
• Yohann Ndoye-Brouard Overhauls Antoine Herlem & Merwen Tomac In Last-Lap Sprint For 1:56 French 200 Back Crown
• Emma Carasco & Laura Cabanes Off To World Titles After Brush With Mireia Belmonte, 34, in 200IM As Trials End
• Maxime Grousset Grabs Worlds Ticket With 22.70 French 'Fly Mark
• When Speedy Meant Inside The Cut By 0.02sec For Arbidel González
• Carmen Weiler & Estella Tonrath Lead Charge On Spanish Backstroke Standards
• Daily heats action at U.S. Championships

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