The 16-year-old has qualified third fastest for tonight’s 200m butterfly final at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Paris.Only a Hungarian and Portuguese have bettered his heat time of 2 min 06.60 sec – a fraction outside his PB.Le Couilliard, as British junior record holder in 2.05.13 and the second fastest in the field on paper, is one of the pre-race favourites.His coach Paul du Feu, who is also a GB team coach in Paris, is confident the youngster has more in the tank and is a realistic gold medal prospect.’I’m sure he’ll get a medal – I’m not sure which colour but it could be gold,’ he said.
‘It’s a head to head with the Hungarian tonight.
‘Simon’s quite happy.
The heats this morning were the first hurdle, now he’s got to go for real.
To win would be some achievement – everybody here is good.
It’s the best swimmers from 27 nations.’
