2024 Mare Nostrum Canet: Day 2 Prelims Features Honda's 1:56.25 200 Fly (original) (raw)

by Retta Race 3

May 26th, 2024 Africa, Asia, Brazil, Latin America & Caribbean, Britain, Canada, Europe, International, Mare Nostrum, News, Previews & Recaps

2024 MARE NOSTRUM – CANET-EN-ROUSSILLON

The second and final day of the 2024 Mare Nostrum Tour stop in Canet got underway this morning with swimmers setting themselves up for tonight’s main event. As with yesterday, nothing crazy happened in the prelims with many of the same stars who raced on day one back in the water to stake their claim on additional hardware.

Frenchman Maxime Grousset was one such swimmer, with the 25-year-old already collecting 50m free gold and 100m fly silver last night.

Grousset took on the men’s 100m free this morning where he notched a time of 48.80 as the sole sub-49-second swimmer in the field.

Behind him was Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto, clocking 49.25 in his attempt to double up on his 200m free victory from night 1.

Dylan Carter (49.55) of Trinidad & Tobago and Jacob Whittle of Great Britain (49.56) will also be among those vying for podium spots in tonight’s final.

For the women’s 100m free, it was France’s Beryl Gastaldello who secured lane 4, punching a morning result of 53.73.

Gastaldello opened in 26.17 and closed in 27.56 to crush the 3rd-fastest time of her career, one which boasts a personal best of 53.40 from December 2020.

Hong Kong’s Olympic medalist Siobhan Haughey has Gasteldello in her sights, however, touching only .04 behind in 53.77 as the 2nd seed. Haughey already put on a show last night, winning the women’s 100m breast and the 200m free.

Dutch world champion in this event, Marrit Steenbergen and Hungarian dynamo Nikolett Padar also landed among the top 8.

Reigning world champion Tomoru Honda displayed his butterfly prowess yet again, dominating the 200m distance in a solid morning outing of 1:56.25.

That rendered him a nearly 2-second advantage over the next-closest competitor Hector Ruvalcaba of Mexico who notched 1:58.04.

Honda’s teammate and fellow 2024 Olympic qualifier Genki Terakado earned the 4th seed in 1:58.63 after mildly upsetting Grousset in the 100m fly last night. South Africa’s Chad Le Clos lurks as the 6th-seeded athlete in 2:00.34.

Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of the host nation logged a morning swim of 54.82 to carry a small lead into tonight’s men’s 100m back final.

Flanking him will be Adam Jaszo of Hungary who turned in 54.91 while India’s Srihari Nataraj will be on the other side attempting to improve upon his 55.07 morning result.

Canadian Ingrid Wilm holds the pole position in the women’s 100m back after hitting 1:00.74. Dutch maestro Kira Toussaint (1:00.83) and Sweden’s Louise Hansson (1:00.93) are right in the mix, as is France’s Mary-Ambre Moluh (1:00.94)

Additional Top Seeds

In This Story

Andrii Govorov
Beryl Gastaldello
Chad le Clos
Dylan Carter
Ippei Watanabe
Jessica Vall
Katsuhiro Matsumoto
Kira Toussaint
Marrit Steenbergen
Maxime Grousset
Mireia Belmonte
Nyls Korstanje
Siobhan Haughey
Sophie Hansson
Waka Kobori

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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