The swim was part of a 10x100m relay, an unofficial event, and the race never announced in advance as a 4x100m world-record attempt. The French Federation had sought ratification for the first four legs of the relay as a 4x100m record.
In light of the Libby Lenton incident last April - when the Australian clocked a sizzling 52.99 sprint over 100m freestyle in a lane next to Michael Phelps in Sydney - there was little scope for loose interpretation of the rulebook.
Fabien Gilot, Gregory Mallet, Romain Caffet and Frederick Bousquet clocked the 3:08.29 at a club competition in Istres. The fastest time in the world before that was 3:08.85 by a quartet from Auburn University (it involved swimmers from more than one nation), while the world record belongs to Sweden at 3:09.57. A record with a 'ripe for breaking' note hanging over it.