Olympic champ Manaudou suffers shock defeat
Vichy : Reigning world, Olympic and European 50m freestyle champion Florent Manaudou suffered his firstdefeat in two years in his favourite distance on Sunday, just a month before the Rio Games.
Manaudou surrendered the lead to Andrii Govorov at the French Open, the Ukrainian clocking a winning time of 21.93 seconds to pip the Frenchman (22.11sec) to a shock victory.
"When you have not lost for two or three years it sucks," said Manaudou, 25, the world short-course record holder.
"This is the first time in four years that I swam so badly in a final."
Manaudou had been hoping to pull off a 50m-100m freestyle double at the August Rio Games but failed to qualify for the latter at earlier French nationals.
He will nevertheless still swim a 100m in Rio as one of the 4x100m relay team and where France will defend their Olympic title.
Manaudou is the younger brother of former Olympic women's swimming champion LaureManaudou.
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