Hugo Gonzalez Claims Double Gold On Penultimate Night Of Spanish Spring Championships

2025 SPANISH SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 5th – Sunday, March 9th
• Sabadell, Spain
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Entries/Results
• Livestream

We entered day four of the 2025 Spanish Spring Championships with swimmers diving in for in-season results a few months ahead of this year’s World Championships.

The 5-day competition represents an important stepping stone on the way to the Spanish World Championship Trials on the agenda for June.

26-year-old Olympian Hugo Gonzalez got on the board twice on the penultimate night of racing.

Gonzalez took on the men’s 100m back/200m IM double, getting to the wall first in each.

In the former, the world champion clocked a time of 53.70 to beat the field, with Juan Saravia Pelaez being the next-closest swimmer, with 54.16.

As for Gonzalez, the former Cal Bear’s lifetime best checks in at the 52.70 he notched en route to claiming silver in this 1back event at last year’s World Championships.

Gonzalez’s winning result in the 200m IM was 1:59.65, marking the sole outing of the field to go under the 2:00 barrier.

Carlos Garach Benito took the gold in the men’s 200m free, registering a winning result of 1:47.62, a new lifetime best. That beat runner-up Stefano Ballo of Italy who nabbed silver in 1:48.90 while Miguel Perez-Godoy Brageli rounded out the podium in 1:48.97.

Entering this competition, Benito’s PB stood at the 1:48.04 notched in June of last year. He now becomes Spain’s 3rd-fastest performer of all time with his performance.

Top Spanish Men’s LCM 200 Free Performers All-Time

1. Cesar Castro – 1:46.46, 2024
2. Luis Dominguez – 1:47.02, 2024
3. Carlos Garach Benito – 1:47.62, 2025
4. Sergio Montalban – 1:47.91, 2023
5. Miguel Duran – 1:48.18, 2015

Of note, Luca Hoek Le Guenedal, just 16 years of age, was the C-final winner in an impressive time of 1:48.35. Splitting 24.45/26.48/27.99/29.43, the teen obliterated his previous career-quickest time of 1:51.36 from April last year.

On the women’s side, Maria Garcia kept her winning streak going with another gold, this time in the 100m free.

Garcia stopped the clock at 54.98 to get to the wall just under half a second ahead of the field. Her result came within striking distance of her best-ever time of 54.50 from last June.

Ainhoa Campabadal Amuzcua earned silver in 55.39 while Claudia Munoz Becerra bagged bronze in 56.28.

Laura Cabanes Garzas ripped a time of 2:09.06 to handily defeat the women’s 200m fly field.

Next to the wall was Belgium’s Sarah Dumont who turned in a time of 2:10.94 as another visiting swimmer, Portugal’s Mariana Pacheco Cunha produced 2:13.08 as the 3rd-place finisher.

Additional Winners

• Portugal’s Camila Rodrigues Rebelo got it done for gold in the women’s 100m back, punching a time of 1:01.09.
• The women’s 800m free saw Angela Martinez Guillen claim the top spot in 8:34.01.
• Arbidel Gonzalez Alvarez put up an effort of 1:56.70 as the men’s 200m fly gold medalist. That narrowly defeated Miguel Martinez Novoa‘s silver medal-worthy effort of 1:56.89.