2019 WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES/SUMMER UNIVERSIADE – SWIMMING
- July 4th-9th, 2019
- Napoli, Italy
- LCM (50m)
- Live Stream: Olympic Channel (in US), Rai Sport (in Italy)
- Entry Lists & Live Results
18-year-old Jose Lopez of Portugal appears to have eclipsed a national 800 free record that had stood for a dozen years.
Lopez set the mark in prelims of the World University Games (also known as the Summer Universiade) on Sunday. Swimming in the first of three circle-seeded heats, Lopez went 8:03.80 for second in his heat. That appears to be the fastest time by a Portuguese national in history – the fastest swim we could find was an 8:05.35 from Fernando Costa back in 2007. Costa hit that time at the Portuguese Open Championships in late July.
Lopez went on to compete in the final of the 800 free. He was 8th in prelims, making the championship final by three tenths of a second over American Sean Grieshop. Lopez fell back to 8:04.68 in the final and maintained 8th place. But the swim should still stand up as the second-best in Portuguese history in the event. His best swim coming into the meet was just 8:08.67.