2024 SPANISH SPRING OPEN
The final day of action unfolded in Spain last night with another national record going down in a men’s sprint freestyle event.
We already saw Cesar Castro make it happen in the 200m free with his new national standard-setting 1:46.46. However, it was Sergio De Celis‘s turn when the 100m free came to pass.
After hitting a time of 48.96 to take the top seed out of the morning heats, De Celis took things up a notch to ultimately touch in a time of 48.34 for the gold.
Opening in 23.21 and closing in 25.13, Castro overtook his previous Spanish record of 48.39 put up just a couple of weeks ago at the World Championships.
There in Doha, De Celis wound up placing 10th, just 2 slots away from the final.
De Celis’s result last night also established a new competition record, surpassing the 48.56 Konrad Cerniak put on the books in 2016.
Behind De Celis in the race was Rafael Fente wo was also under 49 seconds in 48.86 while Castro rounded out the top 3 finishers in 49.50.
De Celis now ranks 18th in the world on the season.
A Cut?
Yep matched it exactly
Olympic year = Fast times big time
Does anybody know if Rafael Fente Damers is representing France or Spain internationally? I believe he is eligible for both. Very talented kid with a bright future who’d probably get on the 4×1 for either nation.
He chose to represent France
Thanks
Interesting the parallel history of Rafael Fente Damers (born in 2006) and Luca Hoek le Guenedal (born in 2008) both traning in Spain with dual citizenship. Fente Damers made his choice swimming for France at EuroJuniors 2023, while the youngster Hoek Le Guenedal appeared as French till last year but in these Spanish Winter Champs was listed as Spanish: if that were his choice to compete internationally he would be a great addition to Spanish swimming team in the next years.
Luca Hoek le Guenedal recently started training twice a week with Ben Titley and Antonio Jimenez at the High Performance Center in Barcelona.