2023-07-24 07:07:23
The swimmer qualified for the 1,500m final with the sixth best time in the heats.
After Léon Marchand, busy Sunday erasing the last world record of Michael Phelps, it is Laure Manaudou who now sees her times being beaten by the new guard of French swimming. Anastasiia Kirpichnikova seized the French record for the 1,500 meters during the series of the world swimming championships in Fukuoka, this Monday, July 24. Manaudou had held this mark since May 14, 2006, the oldest record in France for tricolor swimming.
Kirpichnikova set the tone, lowering the time by almost three seconds in 16’00″40, when Manaudou had signed 16’03″01 during the 2006 French championships in Tours. “I’m happy because in Rennes (at the French championships, June 12, editor’s note), I missed this record by a small second, did she react. And doing it here, in the morning, I’m very happy.“With this performance, the sixth time in the heats, the 23-year-old swimmer qualified for the 1,500 meter final on Tuesday.
“The medal, I believe in it!”
For her first Worlds under the colors of France – Russian, she was naturalized French in April 2023 -, Kirpichnikova hopes to erase, with the 1,500 meters, the frustration of her first races in open water and over 400 meters. “Yesterday, in the 400 meters, it was very difficult, but it’s always like that. I felt much better than yesterday. On the race, there, I wanted to follow Lani Pallister and keep her feet at a good distance, that was my strategy. Tomorrow, there will be the final and we will see. I hope to get a medal, I believe in it. But it’s secret (laughs)!“
The European 1,500m short course champion in 2021 will no doubt have to lower her new record even further to get on the podium on Tuesday. Australian Lani Pallister, third on Monday, swam more than two seconds faster than Kirpichnikova (+ 2 “29). A good distance from the queen of the distance, Katie Ledecky, as usual on another planet from the series, with almost 14 seconds ahead of the competition (15’41″22).
Interview by our special correspondent Quentin Ramelet, in Fukuoka.
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