It is the big surprise at the start of the championship and the real disappointment: Charlotte Bonnet’s elimination in the 200m freestyle semi-final. The Nice native misses the Wednesday evening final by seven hundredths of a second. Cruel.
These hundredths are costly, very costly. Ranked sixth in the world upon arriving in Kazan, Charlotte Bonnet fails to reach the final with the ninth-best time of 1’57″01. Yet, it is her favorite distance, where she had set her season-best time of 1’56″16 at the Canet meet last June.
Placed in the first of the two semi-finals, she swam “blind,” as they say, unlike the morning heats where she could manage her race. Indeed, on Tuesday morning, all was well. Eighth with a time of 1’57″99, the Nice swimmer even allowed herself the luxury of easing up at the end of the race to conserve energy for the evening session. But the draw proved “fatal” when knowing the previous times can be a real advantage.
“A difficult disappointment to swallow… I gave it my all and it wasn’t enough tonight. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your messages of support,” she posted on her Twitter account in the evening, after bursting into tears in the mixed zone, according to the French special correspondents in Kazan.
Not all is lost as she still has the 100m freestyle on Thursday (final on Friday) and the 4x200m relay on the same day for Fabrice Pellerin’s protégé.
For the Nice swimmers, a first small chance at a medal presents itself this Wednesday evening with the mixed 4x100m medley relay, on the agenda since last year, where Anna Santamans, Marie Wattel, and Cloé Hache could be lined up by the French coaches.
Photo credit: French Swimming Federation / KMSP/S.KEMPINAIRE
