World Swimming Championships: Beryl Gastaldello aims for French record in 50m freestyle

Beryl Gastaldello (6th time in the 50m freestyle heats in 24''53, qualified): "I felt really good. At the start, I think I can be more explosive on the block. Behind, I accelerated well but my touch isn't great. We have to see what I can correct for this evening, starting by pushing harder to get a better time, and why not a small French record, which would be very cool. I'm in good shape. It's going to be very close to invite ourselves to the final, we will probably have to do 24''3 (...) My goal is to improve in each race. So far, that has been the case at these World Championships and I have to continue this good momentum. It's not for nothing that I have a tattoo on my back which says, in Italian: slow goes surely and goes a long way."

Analia Pigrée (17th time in the 50m freestyle heats in 24''93, reserve): "It's not a bad time, even if I find myself first reserve, which is a little hard because you don't know if you're going to swim or not. I have to expect anything. But it's one of my best times in the morning, I'm pretty happy. Especially since there was no one in the two lanes around me (due to two withdrawals), so I had no one to hold on to and I didn't know if I was going fast or not. But that's the game. And the fact that I'd only done backstroke until now, in the warm-up, it was a little complicated. But it was fun to do crawl internationally, which I'd never done."