The Spanish Swimming Federation has released the minimum qualification time standards by which it plans on selecting its 2016 Olympic Games roster. Along the same lines as those qualification times released by both France and Great Britain, Spain is also tightening up on its minimum time standards, although not to quite the speedy extent as the aforementioned nations.
Spanish Olympic Games Qualification Standards
Spanish Open Nationals/Trials (el Campeonato de España Open de Primavera) will be held March 19th-22nd, with the top two finishers making the team, provided that they at least match the qualification standards. In the events where two swimmers fail to meet the minimum times, the Technical Swimming Commission may factor in times achieved in prelims using the “B” standard.
Worth noting, however, is that Spanish swimmers are able to select a FINA-sanctioned international meet to be held between December 1, 2015 and March 13, 2016 to also try to achieve the qualification standards. If an “A” qualifying time is achieved at that meet, then the swimmer earns a Rio roster spot, provided that two other athletes do not beat that time at the Spanish Nationals.
Examples of swift Spanish qualifying times include the men’s 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke events, where the qualifying times of 48.80 and 1:00.44 exceed those of the Spanish National Records of 48.98 and 1:00.45, respectively. Among others, the men’s 200 fly qualification standard of 1:56.76 also exceeds the Spanish National Record of 1:57.0.
The story is quite similar on the women’s side as well, where the qualification times of 25.00 in the 50 free and 54.17 in the 100 free quite significantly exceed the Spanish National Records of 25.49 and 54.85, respectively. The 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly events follow the same pattern, with the qualification times of 1:00.07 and 58.37 being swifter than that of 1:00.29 and 58.87 that represent the Spanish records currently.