It is quite rare to break two records in one day. But it is just as exceptional to lose two! Yet this is what happened to Laure Manaudou on the second day of the World Championships on Monday.
In the morning series of the 1,500m, the Olympic champion from Athens saw Anastasiia Kirpichnikova, recently passed under the blue-white-red banner, shave her best national mark (16′00′’40 against 16′03′’01) which dated back 17 years and constituted the oldest record in hexagonal swimming. Manaudou conquered it in 2003 before improving it four times.
“I’m happy because at the French Championships, I missed it for a second”, smiles the naturalized Russian, who shares a lot in common with the tricolor star of the 2000s. Kirpichnikova indeed trains in Martigues with Philippe Lucas, the man who once told Laure Manaudou’s father that he would make his daughter a winner of the Games.
???????? New French record in the 1500m NL for Anastasiia Kirpichnikova ????
Our tricolor offers Laure Manaudou’s French record which dates back to 2006 ????
16’00”40 against 16’03”01 ???? pic.twitter.com/AnT4fUDMzY
— SPORTRICOLORE (@sportricolore) July 24, 2023
After getting closer in the series, Pauline Mahieu, she waited for the semi-finals of the 100 m backstroke to take away from her eldest the first line of the hexagonal times of the specialty. Fifth and qualified for Tuesday’s final, the northerner licensed at Canet signed 59′’30, two tenths better than the performance established by Manaudou at the Euros in Eindhoven in 2008 (which already held the previous records since 2004).
“It’s the race I dreamed of, blows the Habs, who thinks they can go even faster in the final. When I was younger, people kept comparing me to her because I was doing the “year of age” records when I didn’t have her career at all, but I always dreamed of it. I wanted to beat him. »
Laure Manaudou only has two lines left to “defend”. She still remains the No. 1 tricolor in the 200m backstroke and 800m…
