Mexico won’t send a team to the 2018 World Short Course Swimming Championships that will be held from December 11th-16th in Hangzhou, China. Instead, the country’s top international swimmer Lili Ibanez will race at the last two legs of the FINA World Cup Series, in Tokyo in Singapore, and return home to Mexico to race at the Mexican Short Course ‘A’ National Championships from December 15th to 18th in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The pool will be the one used at the 2011 Pan American Games.
Mexico has made attendance at the National Championships mandatory for swimmers who want to race at the 2019 Pan American Games, which is a primary driver for Ibanez to skip Short Course Worlds.
The 27-year old Ibanez is completing one of the most successful years of her sporting career, including winning 9 medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games in July. That includes gold medals in all 5 offered relays (3 women’s, 2 mixed); a silver in the 50 free; and bronze medals in the 100 free, 200 free, and 50 fly. The 50 (25.15) and 100 (55.39) freestyles both came in new Mexican National Record times.
Ibanez is currently training at Texas A&M University, where she swam in college.
Ibanez also received the Guanajuato State Prize 2018, which makes her the best athlete representing the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. The win also nominates her for the National Sports Award as the best athlete in Mexico.
Adrian Mancebo of SwimSwam Espanol contributed to this report.