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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Miguel Martinez unleashed an elite performance in the men’s 200 butterfly on Day 1 of the SCM Spanish Cup (Copa de Espana de Clubes) on Wednesday, breaking a National Record that had been on the books since 2009.
Martinez, 23, put up a time of 1:52.88 in the event, cracking the previous Spanish Record of 1:53.26 established by Alex Villaecija Garcia more than 14 years ago at the Spanish Team Championships in April 2009.
Martinez came into the competition with a lifetime best of 1:53.72, established in December 2022.
Relative to that performance, Martinez was more aggressive on the second 50 and managed to hold on a bit better coming home.
Split Comparison
| Martinez, December 2022 | Martinez, December 2023 |
| 25.51 | 25.46 |
| 54.83 (29.32) | 54.15 (28.69) |
| 1:23.60 (28.77) | 1:23.03 (28.88) |
| 1:53.72 (30.12) | 1:52.88 (29.85) |
The swim marks the first Spanish Record for Martinez. In the long course 200 fly, his lifetime best stands at 1:57.42, still more than two seconds shy of the national mark of 1:54.99, set by Arbidel Gonzalez this past summer at the World Championship in Fukuoka.
Martinez has yet to qualify to represent Spain at the World Championships, but was in action at the LEN U23 Championships in August, where he placed sixth in the 200 fly.
In the 100 fly on Friday, Martinez was the runner-up in a time of 51.78, dipping under his previous best of 51.81 set in 2021.
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Awesome! Congrats!!