2021 SPANISH LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 24, 2021 – Sunday, March 28, 2021
- Sabadell, Spain
- Olympic Qualification Event
- LCM (50M)
- Results Page
Over the first two days of the 2021 Spanish Long Course Championships, Jimena Perez and Joan Lluis Pons have become the most recent swimmers to clear the Spanish Olympic selection criteria in the 800 freestyle and 400 IM, respectively. Their additions to the roster have brought the team up to a 7-person squad:
SPANISH OLYMPIC TEAM
- Mireia Belmonte – 800m/1500m free
- Hugo Gonzalez – 100m back, 200m IM
- Jessica Vall – 200m breast
- Africa Zamorano – 200m back
- Nicolas Garcia – 200m back
- Jimena Perez – 800m free *NEW*
- Joan Pons – 400 IM *NEW*
As day 2 prelims got underway this morning, swimmers contested the 100 breast and 200 back prelims, along with all but the fastest heat of the men’s 800 and women’s 1500 freestyles.
While Jessica Vall has already qualified to swim the 200 breast in Tokyo this summer, she has not yet hit the 1:07.07 it will take to earn a spot in the 100. She swam a 1:08.03 this morning to get within a second of the necessary time and she has proven that she has the potential to get under the mark, boasting a personal best of 1:06.44 from back in 2017.
While they were both a little farther off this morning, Marina Garcia and Laura Rodriquez will both be fighting to qualify in the event tonight alongside Vall. This morning, Garcia swam a 1:09.27 for second seed in tonight’s final while Rodriguez was a 1:09.74 for third.
Gonzalo Carazo posted the quickest men’s 100 breast time of the morning with his 1:02.58, getting in faster than Joan Ballester‘s 1:03.09 and Alex Castejon’s 1:03.10. It’ll take a decent drop for any of them to clear the selection cut of 59.93 in tonight’s final.
In the women’s 200 backstroke, Africa Zamorano posted the quickest time in the field with a 2:14.96. Zamorano has already qualified for the Olympics in that event so it will be up to someone else to swim under the 2:10.39 selection standard tonight in order to earn the second spot on the team.
Marta Beesmans Barquero (2:15.22) and Paloma de Bordons (2:16.19) will be joining Zamorano in tonight’s final as second and third seed respectively.
As was the case in the women’s event, the top seed from the men’s prelims, Nicolás García has already qualified for Tokyo in the 200 back. He swam a 1:57.06 this morning, getting under the FINA A cut of 1:57.50 again. Manuel Martos was a 1:58.05 this morning in the prelims so he will only need to drop 0.55 seconds in tonight’s final in order to qualify for Tokyo.
Along with the 200 back and 100 breast finals tonight, we’ll see if Jimena Perez can secure a second event invite as she races the 1500 freestyle. All it will take is getting somewhere close to her current PB of 16:08.70 as the cut sits at a 16:32.04.
In the men’s 800 freestyle tonight, Albert Escrits Mañosa will have a shot at getting under the 7:54.31 cut. Mañosa is entered with a time just a bit slower than the mark with a 7:56.49.