After Disappointing Championship, Spain Removes Technical Director of Swimming Albert Tubella

As originally reported in the SwimSwam Español channel, here.

RFEN, the governing body of aquatics sports in Spain, has announced the termination of Albert Tubella as the Technical Director of Swimming of the RFEN. In his stead, Fred Vergnoux will assume the role of coordination of the National Team until the end of the season with a view of the upcoming international meets.

The decision was made by the president of the RFEN Fernando Carpena Pérez in consultation with his staff after a disappointing performance at the Spanish Open Championships in Sabadell last week, where only 7 swimmers hit qualifying times for the World Championships. The release on the topic called it an “extraordinary decision.”

The country sent 8 swimmers to the 2017 World Championships.

RFEN also announced that they would add one more meet, the upcoming Barcelona Grand Prix, to their qualifying regimen, giving their athletes one more chance to hit FINA “A” standards for the Gwangju World Championships.

Fred Vergnoux is most famously the coach of Spain’s greatest-ever swimmer Mireia Belmonte. After overtures that he might be leaving the country for a job at the French National Sports Institute in 2017, he wound up staying put.

The 7 swimmers selected after the Spanish Open:

1. Mireia Belmonte (UCAM CN Fuensanta)
2. Marina García (CN Sabadell)
3. Jimena Pérez (CD Gredos San Diego)
4. Jessica Vall (CN Sant Andreu)
5. Juan Francisco Segura (Real Canoe NC)
6. Africa Zamorano (CN Sant Andreu)
7. Hugo Gonzalez de Oliveira (Real Canoe NC)