Three days after her excellent meeting in Monaco, Charlotte Bonnet shone once again at the Canet-en-Roussillon event. Over the course of two days, the Nice native secured a victory in the 200m freestyle and a third-place finish in the 100m with very satisfying times.
The big names are almost ready. Less than two months before the opening of the Rio pool, the world’s best (excluding Americans) gathered for the Mare Nostrum series (Monaco, Canet, Barcelona). Among the Nice swimmers, Charlotte Bonnet once again delivered strong performances, while the younger swimmers Cloé Hache and Marie Wattel more than just made appearances.
Bonnet Warns Her Competitors
On Wednesday, in the 200m freestyle, the Monaco rematch pitted Charlotte Bonnet against the very talented Katinka Hosszu. And as in the Louis II swimming pool, the Nice native emerged victorious against the Hungarian with an excellent time of 1’56’’84, her fifth-best performance of the year. It’s worth noting that her five best times in 2016 are now all under the famous 1’57’’ mark, a testament to her maturity and genuine progress.
In the 100m on Thursday, Fabrice Pellerin’s protégé competed against the best. Second in the heats (54’’84), Bonnet was outperformed in the final by Canadian Oleksiak and the formidable Ottesen (Denmark). Once again, the clock was tested with a time of 54’’03 (4th personal performance in 2016), just a bit over two-tenths of her time set in Monaco (53’’80).
Wattel and Hache Attempt to Compete
At 18 and 19 years old, Cloé Hache and Marie Wattel consider these major events as important milestones in their progression process. In the 100m butterfly, Marie Wattel passed the challenging heats with the 8th fastest time (59’’34). In the final, she moved up a place but did not improve her time (59’’41). The Nice native stands a second away from her best performances achieved at the “French Championships”. Nonetheless, these were satisfactory races during a heavy training period.
As for Cloé Hache, she achieved “only” the 19th time in the heats of a very competitive 100m freestyle, but she accelerated compared to Monaco and clocked a time of 56’’17, her fourth-best performance of the year. The task in the 200m was more challenging. With a time of 2’02’’09, she took the 22nd place in the heats, far from her best race at the French Championships where her time had dropped below two minutes.
