Spanish Championships: Hugo Gonzalez Drops 1:54.51 200 Back for World No. 2
Hugo Gonzalez set the Spanish Championships alive on Thursday by setting the Spanish record in the men’s 200 backstroke.
Gonzalez went 1:54.51 to win the event in Mallorca, setting a meet record and the Spanish record. It downs the super-suited mark set in 2009 by Aschwin Wildeboer at 1:54.92.
The Cal product entered the meet with the top time in the world in 2024, his 1:55.30 from the World Championships in Doha that earned him gold. The 1:54.51 slots him in between training partners from U.S. Olympic Trials: Ryan Murphy set the top time at 1:54.33, with Keaton Jones’ 1:54.61 third.
News of Gonzalez’s swim had filtered its way back to Indianapolis this week.
“One of our group messages was going off about Hugo’s race,” Murphy said. “I woke up from my nap, and I’m like, ‘Damn, Hugo went 1:54.5.’ That’s really not surprising. Hugo’s been training really well. I know what the Cal guys are capable of, and Hugo’s going to have a great summer.”
On Day 1 of the meet, Gonzalez set the championship record in the 100 back by going 52.71. That is .01 off the time he set at Worlds in Doha, which is tied for ninth in the world this year.
Gonzalez also set the meet record in the men’s 200 individual medley Friday, going 1:56.48 in finals. That is .17 off his national record from Mare Nostrum in 2021. It’s the seventh-fastest time in the world in 2024. He edged Chinese Taipei’s Hsing-Hao Wang, who’d set a meet record of 1:59.27 in prelims. Just for good measure, Gonzalez dropped matching times of 2:11.96 in the 200 breaststroke, his finals result second to Carles Coll Marti’s 2:10.58.
Five national records fall
Gonzalez’s was one of five national records set by Spanish swimmers as they prep for Paris.
Carmen Weiler Sastre has had a meet to remember. In prelims of the women’s 100 breaststroke, she set the Spanish record at 59.65 seconds. She had a push, chasing Canadian Olympian Kylie Masse, who set the meet mark of 59.19. Masse scratched the final, which Weiler Sastre won in 59.87.
The same script played out in Thursday’s 200 back, the third day of the five-day meet. Masse set the meet record in the morning at 2:09.03, then scratched finals. Weiler Sastre went 2:08.89 at night to take down both the meet and national marks. She won the 50 back on the final day in 28.46, again after Masse had set the pace in prelims at 27.69.
Paula Juste Sanchez downed the Spanish record in the women’s 100 butterfly with a time of 58.48. She just edged out Portugal’s Mariana Pacheco Cunha (58.82) to win the event. Juste Sanchez fell second in the 200 fly to Laura Cabanes Garzas’ time of 2:09.03.
Carlos Garach lowered his national mark in the 400 free by just shy of seven tenths to 3:47.29, also a meet record. He set the meet standard in the 1,500 free by going 14:57.99, his winning margin more than 20 seconds.
A sprinter’s paradise
Mario Molla Yanes set the meet record in the 100 fly, going 52.28 to edge the twin 52.30s of Arbidel Gonzalez Alvarez and Youssef Ramadan.
The 50 fly was similarly compelling. Diogo Ribiero of Portugal set the meet record in 23.23 to best Molla Yanes (23.50), Alberto Lozano Mateos (23.67) and Ramadan (23.95). Ribiero had been 23.48 in prelims.
Coll Marti, who lowered the 100 breast national record in Atlanta last month, went 1:00.63 to set the meet record. He was a half-second clear of Poland’s Dawid Wiekiera.
Spain has qualified all three men’s relays for the Games, plus the women’s 800 free relay.
Cesar Castro Valle set a meet record to win the men’s 200 freestyle. He went 1:46.51. Luis Dominguez Calonge was second in 1:47.91, with Garrach third. Dominguez Calonge set a meet record in prelims of the men’s 100 free at 48.44, but he was beaten in the final by Sergio De Celis, who went 48.52. Castro Valle was second in 48.86, followed by Ribeiro’s 48.96, with Molla Yanes fourth in 49.18 and Coll Marti eighth in 49.44. Dominguez Calonge slid to seventh in a disappointing 49.29.
The 50 free on Friday was even more of a classic, De Celis and Ribiero tying for gold in 22.16. Oscar Pascual Buldon finished third in 22.18, followed by Argentina’s Guido Buscaglia in 22.23. Molla Yanes was fifth. (Ramadan finished fifth in prelims in 22.53 before scratching finals.)
Also in Spain …
Jimena Ruiz Sanchez set a meet record in the women’s 50 breaststroke by winning in 31.14 seconds. That’s also the Under-18 national record. The runner-up, Maria Ramos Najji, set the Under-17 mark at 31.43. Her finals swim lowered the 31.52 she had set in prelims. Jessica Vall holds the senior national mark at 30.89 seconds. Vall won the 100 breast in 1:07.94 on the second day of the meet, then finished it up Saturday by claiming the 200 breast in 2:23.93.
Luara Cabanes Garzas set a national junior record in the women’s 100 fly at 59.31. Lismar Lyon of Venezuela took down the meet mark in the women’s 50 fly at 26.75.
Gonzalez Alvarez set a pair of meet records in the men’s 200 fly, the latter a 1:55.60 to win the final. Emma Carrasco did the same in the women’s 200 IM, capturing the final in 2:11.11.
Maria Daza Garcia set a national junior record and meet record of 54.50 in winning the women’s 100 free. Belgium’s Valentine Dumont had been the top qualifier in prelims at 55.18 before eschewing finals. She went on to win the 400 free in 4:08.53 on Saturday.
Among the foreign winners were Chilean Kristel Kobrich, in the women’s 1,500 free in 16:22.15, and Ulises Saravia of Argentina in the men’s 50 back at 25.06, a meet record.
