Gabriel Castaño Breaks Mexican Record in 50 Free by Over 4-Tenths

2019 Arena Grand Prix – Mexico

• April 11th-15th, 2019
• Tijuana, Mexico
• Results on Meet Mobile: “ARENA Grand Prix de Natacion Senior 2019”

A pair of National Records and a number of Pan American Games qualifying times were broken this weekend at the Mexican Arena Grand Prix in Tijuana.

Both record-setting swims came in the men’s freestyle events, albeit by 2 different swimmers. First, on Friday, in the men’s 200 free, Jorge Iga swam a 1:47.14, which broke his own record of 1:47.19 that was swum last July.

Then, 2 days later, Gabriel Castaño swam a 22.20 in the men’s 50 free. That crushed the old National Record of 22.63 set by Daniel Ramirez at last year’s Central American and Caribbean Games. Casano’s time just-barely misses the FINA “A” standard for the World Championships, which currently stands at 22.18, though it will be a high-enough ranked “B” time to easily earn an invite. The Olympic “A” time is 22.01.

The two met in the middle in the 100 free where, in fact, neither Castano’s speed (49.99) nor Ida’s endurance (50.09) won the rubber-match. Instead, it was Long Gutierrez who took the 100 free title, touching 1st in 49.87.