The first day, Thursday August 11, of the European Swimming Championships, in Rome, ended with a record of two medals for the French delegation. Both bronze. One in artistic swimming, the first for fifteen years for the French team in this discipline, the other in swimming race, on the men’s 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.
Medal scarcity since 2007
In the artistic swimming team technical event (ballet of eight swimmers performing compulsory figures), Ambre Esnault, Laura Gonzalez, Mayssa Guermoud, Oriane Jaillardon, Maureen Jenkins, Romane Lunel, Eve Planeix and Charlotte Tremble climbed on the third step from the podium.
With a score of 88.0093 points, Les Bleues, who played to music by the group Daft Punk, placed behind Ukraine (92.5106) and Italy (90.3772).
After their fourth place at the Worlds in June in Budapest (Hungary), the swimmers, trained by Julie Fabre, were keen to get on the podium. Before the competition, the latter had expressed her ambitions: “If we don’t reach the podium, I won’t be proud. This will mean that we have something less than a month ago in Budapest. »
The last French medal in an international artistic swimming competition was in gold and had been won, in individual freestyle, by Virginie Dedieu at the 2007 world championships.
Earlier in the day, Eve Planeix qualified for the free individual final, finishing in fifth place in the heats (with a score of 88.1667 points).
Next step for the French team: the free team elimination round, Saturday August 13, at 9:30 a.m.
“It launches the French team perfectly”
Hadrien Salvan, Wissam-Amazigh Yebba, Enzo Tesic and Roman Fuchs took third place in the 4×200m. With a time of 7m 6s 97, they ranked behind Hungary and Italy.
“It was an incredible moment. This launches the France team perfectlywelcomed Hadrien Salvan. At the Worlds, Léon [Marchand] had been world champion on the first day, we thought that if we could get a small medal, it would be good to start the thing. It’s not as good, but for us it’s already huge. »
Among the women, the 4 × 200 m relay, made up of Lucile Tessariol, Giulia Rossi-Bene, Marina Jehl and Océane Carnez, took sixth place in the final. Les Bleues finished one place below their playoff rankings earlier in the day.