Spanish swimmer Paula Juste, who trains with Fred Vergnoux‘s group, tested yesterday positive for COVID-19, altering the group’s training program. As such, Juste will now have to self-isolate for at least 14 days.
As Natacción reports, the training group is comprised of Juste, reigning Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte, Jimena Perez, Tokyo-qualified Alberto Martinez, Ferran Julia, Marcos Martin, Alejandro Puebla and Arbidel Gonzalez was slated to embark on a training camp at the Sierra Nevada High-Performance Center Oct. 25 through Nov. 19.
Per medical guidelines, none of them will be allowed to travel to Sierra Nevada until their test results come back. According to government guidelines, further, athletes who test positive for the virus cannot resume training until a negative test is confirmed.
Juste is a 17-year old swimmer who has represented her country internationally on several occasions already, including at the 2019 European Junior Championships, where she finished 5th in both the 400 free and the 400 IM.
She also placed 5th in the 400 free and 400 IM at the 2019 World Junior Championships, and represented the senior team in a trio of prelims swims at the 2019 European Short Course Championships. That was highlighted by a 10th-place finish in the 400 IM in 4:38.31.
As per Belmonte, the 29-year-old swimmer was slated to represent Iron during the ISL’s ongoing second season, though she did not appear in the team’s first meet last weekend. Iron race again on Monday and Tuesday.
The reigning Olympic champion was also absent from a national team training camp held in Mallorca in late September.
A reduced group of athletes attended that camp, which did not feature Belmonte, who last month underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia.
Earlier this week, Spain became the second European nation to reach the seven digits in terms of reported COVID-19 cases. Only Russia has documented more diagnoses on European soil.
The last 2 days have seen Spain’s highest coronavirus counts during the pandemic, with Friday recording almost 21,000 new cases. Deaths in the country due to COVID-19 have begun to climb as well, though not as quickly as the number of new infections.