Budapest 2024, Day 4 Finals: Carles Coll Marti Pulls Clear On Final 25 For 200m Breaststroke Victory
Carles Coll Marti pulled away on the final 25m to claim the 200m breaststroke title at the short-course worlds in Budapest.
The lead changed hands throughout the race with Kirill Prigoda, Coll Marti and Aleksandr Zhigalov all ahead at some point.
Coll Marti and Zhigalov turned together at 175m but a 15.87 last 25 from the Spaniard saw him into the wall in 2:01.55 ahead of Prigoda (2:01.88) and Yamato Fukasawa (2:02.01).
None of the 2022 medallists were in the final with champion Daiya Seto not competing and battling a cracked rib ahead of his tilt at a seventh straight 400IM title and silver medallist Nic Fink not in Budapest.
The absence of Melbourne bronze medallist Qin Haiyang was something of a shock given he’d won the 100 on Thursday but the Chinese swimmer had missed out in the longer distance and had to be content with ninth place and first reserve.
Coll Marti became the first Spanish man to win a world short-course medal in any of the breaststroke events. It was a thriller with the 23-year-old in the top two for the duration of the race bar the first 25m.
Speaking to Swimming World, Coll Marti said: “I knew the race was very close. I honestly had no idea if I was first, second, third, fourth – I just knew we were all together. In the end, at the last wall, I just gave all my best on the pullout and when I touched the wall and I saw that I was first, I was extremely happy.”
He had to put his celebrations to one side, however, for a little over an hour when he contested the 100IM final in which he was fifth in 51.52, 0.02 off his national record in the semis.
“Since the world title in the 200 breast, it’s been feeling like a dream, ” he said. “But I tried to put my phone on focus mode and put some music on and try to relax and focus for the next race. But it has been really hard because it’s my first time winning an international medal and I had to stay composed and everything. I did that best that I could. I am mostly happy with the 100IM.”
Coll Marti trains at Virginia Tech under the stewardship of head coach Sergio Lopez, who he describes as “such a legend for Spanish swimming” and the bronze medallist in the 200 breaststroke at Seoul 1988.
He puts his golden form in Budapest down to training in yards for the last five years or so.
“I’m used to doing a lot of pullouts and everything in practice so I think short-course metres was like a good fit for me right now because that is everything I practice. But I have decided to start training long-course more consistently to be able to reproduce the same thing in long-course.”
Coach Lopez is one of a fine tradition of Spanish breaststrokers while Jessica Vall, who won world and European medals in the 200m, recently retired.
It is to the likes of Lopez, Vall and beyond that Coll Marti looks, saying: “All these good swimmers from Spain are an inspiration for me, you know? As a kid I was watching them swimming on TV. It’s such an honour to keep this tradition of being a good breaststroker at an international level.”
As a neutral athlete, Prigoda cannot speak to the media while Fukasawa – who was fastest into the final – said: “I’ve come for the gold so I’m a bit disappointed. Still, I’m happy to be part of such a great battle. I haven’t reached my personal best, and overall I cannot be satisfied.”
