Bernard 47.50 WR And Euro Title
2008-03-22
Craig Lord
The Frenchman races ahead of a lost generation with bullish blast in Eindhoven, his split 22.53, which as recently as 1997 would have won a medal in the solo 50m European final

Alain Bernard (FRA) raced ahead of his generation with bullish blast in Eindhoven, a 47.50 world record in the 100m freestyle coming off a 22.53 split, which as recently as 1997 would have won a medal in the solo 50m European final.

The aggression in the water was matched by a muscle-pumping celebration on the lane ropes that was uncomfortable to watch. It felt more like defiance than happiness. But then, that's war. A champion must do what a champion must do and no champion is the same as the next. Bernard looked more at ease away from the heat of the moment later in his press conference.

Bernard was reported to have a killer start but he emerged into his stroke in the pack, if anything, slightly down on Duje Draganja (CRO), the 2004 Olympic silver medallist. His trajectory and momentum gained from that must be special however: at 15m out of the wall, it was as if a switch had been flicked: Bernard rolled ahead of his rivals as though he were swimming in a heritage time-warp meet with the class of 1986. Biondi would have looked average. So did Stefan Nystrand (SWE) 48.40, world champion Filippo Magnini (ITA), 48.53, and in fourth Fabien Gilot (FRA) 48.83. They looked baffled.

Nystrand did not hide how he felt. Stoney faced he told the quote takers and reporters assembled in the mixed zone: 'I dont want to comment on the race.' The champion shared at least one thought with the Swede: 'It's unbelievable!' said Bernard. 'I wanted to be faster today, now I know that I'm the man to beat. I have been searching for this level for years.' He's not alone, of course, and the world of sprinting will doubtless ask: how? Magnini told Italian reports that he believed the Frenchman had 'found the right vitamins'. After the final he approached the theme with a little more bravado: 'I'm very happy with my time. Alain Bernard's time is fantastic, of course, but I think I also can clock a time of 47.5 or 47.6 seconds, but not here but in Beijing.'

In recent times, only two swimmers have led podiums in Europe where the spread of medals has covered more than 1sec: Popov (1995) and Van den Hoogenband (2002). Bernard featured in the 2006 final: he was eighth in 49.57. When the two former world record holders won, the men behind them were not ranked immediately behind them on the world ranking list. Indeed in Popov's case, those he beat were not even among the top 10 that year. In Bernard's case, he made some of the crew who will challenge him for gold this summer look second-class. There is so much that is unusual about Bernard that it is not beyond the bounds to say that he has opened the door to a new era of sprinting. Where Hoogie and Nystrand get out in 23.1, Bernard is doing something never seen before: 22.88 to a 47.60, and 22.53 to a 47.50 under pressure when it counts most, no sign of the edginess that often accompanies final performances that follow phenomenal times in semis when the heat is turned down a tick.

Here are the big winning times under pressure in finals at Olympic, World and European level of late: Popov (49.02; 48.74; 49.12; 48.93; 48.42); Hoogie (48.30; 48.17); Ervin (48.33); Magnini (48.12; 48.43, 48.79, 48.87); Hayden (48.43), and so forth. 47.50 is another world.

On the podium, Nystrand and Magnini shuffled uncomfortably when Bernard received his medal. Neither smiled. Nystrand could even be said to have scowled. They shook the champion's hands more out of a sense of sporting duty, it seemed, than in genuine honour of the man who had thrashed them. Bernard's coach Denis Auguin looked on from the stands almost emotionless.

France, of course, cannot get enough of Bernard. In L'Equipe you get to page 5 before swimming stops and soccer finds its place. The hero of the hour is France's eighth world record holder in the pool, all time. L'Equipe leads the way on magnitude of coverage: under the front-page banner headline 'Gigantic', a picture that covers almost the whole page tells a tale of a man who has packed 7kg of weight - every gramme muscle. Bernard is a balance between sprinter and body-builder, a man cut to the tendon. Inside is a vast caricature of the swimmer with a pin-sized head and over-sized arms propping up the world, like Atlas.

The sub-headline declares 'The Albatross'. Apart from the fact that's been done before, and more appropriately, for Michael Gross, of Germany back in the 1980s, Bernard did not resemble a winged creature as he thundered down the pool. He was more charging-bull-come-great white shark, his element forced into servitude as a bow wave to surf on, a stream of controlled aggression flying off every drop of displaced water as the swimmer travelled 1.23sec faster than the speed of Popov on his way to the world title a decade ago; 1.04sec faster than Popov's best Olympic victory; 0.94sec inside his own personal best of 48.54 a year ago; and 0.6sdec up on the average time of the next 20 male sprinters on the all-time list.

There can be no question that dropping a second off your best to a 47.60 in one year is extraordinary (at that speed, unique, of course - uncharted waters until now). One of the biggest drops of the past was that of the man whose record Bernard broke: Pieter Van den Hoogenband went from a best of 49.59 in 1998 at 20 years of age to a 48.35 18 months later in late 1999 and then dropped to the 47.84 world record in Sydney 10 months later. But that was four years after he finished fourth in Atlanta 1996 and many years after having been a European junior champions 100m to 400m. Bernard's period of sprint improvement is much tighter and did not go down well with everyone. World champion in 2005 and 2007, Magnini told the Italian media that the Frenchman had 'found the right vitamins'. A war of words is bubbling between the two nations. The debate started last summer when Stefan Nystrand entered a new phase of his long career in Paris and reached new heights when Eamon Sullivan shattered his personal best

Van den Hoogenband said 'it was time' for the record to fall, and Popov echoed that sentiment and predicted a sub 47sec swim within 5 to 7 years. He did not wish to be drawn on the effect that the Speedo suit may be having on performance (he was an Arena man, wore lycra briefs for much of his career and did not care for bodysuits).

Bernard's first coach Emile Bonifay told L'Equipe that the champagne was ready to be cracked open. The swimmer's current coach Denis Auguin called on people to remain calm. He would be doing so, feet on the ground and all that. The result was not a bolt-out-of-the-blue, he said. Rather it had been achieved through 'alot of technical work, an appliance and application of the athlete on a daily basis, an improvement in his start, the quality of his second lap, as well as a touch here and a touch there.'

In a graphic in L'Equipe, the swimmer's qualities are outlined by Auguin. In summary:

THE ARMS: 2.05 wingspan. Bernard took 33 and 39 strokes there and back in Eindhoven, compared to 34 and 40 when he clocked 48.12.

THE HEAD: the 48.12 effort last June had placed a small barrier in the way. Auguin talked to his swimmer and said 'you are swimming only for yourself', so no point in thinking about what others are doing, saying and thinking. He was beaten by Fabien Gilot at the short-course in December but he remained focussed and responded to Auguin's creed: we don it properly, full-on, or we don't bother - your choice.

THE HEART: 48 waking pulse is stated for Bernard, which is pretty average for a big athlete and is not unusual in the normal population. I wake up with 38 to 42 for example but 47.60 is about teh time it takes me to find the alarm clock on a good day. 48 beats is not particularly low for someone who reaches 190 after a peak effort. But Auguin describes his swimmer's lung capacity as a 'very developed thorax with an important pulmonary capacity'. He is has excellent physiology and a 'good aerobic base'.

THE SUIT: 'We truly don't know whether the [LZR Racer] enhances performance' he talks of an advantage gained in leg strength from the support the suit provides and says he in in

Bernard will take 10 days holiday (not after Eindhoven, as I said in a daft error in earlier takes of this, but...) after the French Olympic trials in Dunkirk next month. Which reminds us all that Bernard has yet to secure his place in Beijing.