Swimming: the Gardois raid the French junior championships, Alès and Nîmes in the national top 15

The Penard twins from Nîmes, on the podiums of the French junior championships. MIDI LIBRE

Les trois médaillés alésiens Chetoui, Varraud-Ibanez et Gil peuvent avoir le sourire. MIDI LIBRE

Superb overall performance by CNC Alès and Nautic-club Nîmois, the two leading Gard clubs in Dunkirk, during the French junior championships.

After the juniors a few days ago, the juniors. The French championships for the 12-13 year-old category took place in Dunkirk at the end of last week. Here again, the two leading Gard clubs, CNC Alès and Nautic-club Nîmois, distinguished themselves. In the national ranking, they are respectively 11th and 13th out of 311 structures present!

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“A dream week”

On the Alès side, eight young people had managed to qualify for the national meeting. In the North, they lived “a dream week with swimmers who were impeccable in the water but also in their state of mind and their behavior”, summarizes, very satisfied, the manager Gwenaël Serio.

Nine podiums in Alès…

The results: 33 races, 32 personal bests, 11 club records broken, 6 from Gard and 3 from Occitanie. And 9 medals brought back, 3 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze.

Born in 2012, Louka Gil superbly dominated his age category in backstroke since he achieved a hat-trick with three titles of French champion 12 years old on 50, 100 and 200 m (three Occitanie records). And completes his collection of trinkets by ranking 3rd in the 50 m and 100 m freestyle. The Cévenol also ranked 4th in the 200 m, 6 hundredths of a second away from a sixth podium.

Chloé Varraud-Ibañez also had a magnificent competition and finished bronze, three times: in the 400m (like last year), 800m and, a nice surprise, in the 200m butterfly on the last day.

Kamil Chetoui closed this festival by winning the title of vice-champion of France in the 200m butterfly (4th in the 400m). Maïlys Sagit's 4th place in the 200m backstroke left some regrets but confirmed her progress (5th in the 800m). Finally, top 7 and 8 for Mélia Cotingarin in the 50, 100 and 200 backstroke as well as for Liséa Pichon in the 50 and 200 breaststroke; 10 for Giovani Callamani in the 400m and 15 for Noélyse Discolle in the 50m.

… and six medals from Nîmes

On the Nîmes side, there are a total of six podiums for the four qualified swimmers. Including the Penard sisters, twins born in 2011 and members of the new sports section of the Alzon institute, opened in September.

In Dunkirk, they shone brightly in 4 strokes: Faustine is French champion of the 400m 4 stroke, vice-champion of the 200m 4 stroke and the 800m, and 3rd in the 400m with Gard records each time. Of all colors! Margaux is not to be outdone, silver in the 400 4 medley (double the sisters in the event, therefore) and bronze in the 200 4 medley.

As for the other two Nîmes, Édouard Gervais is 9th in the 800 m and Sacha Stéphan 26th in the 200 butterfly. Finally, mention to another Gardois present, Villeneuvois Imran Allali, 28th in the 200 breaststroke.