2018 Spanish Spring Open Day 3: Belmonte Adds 2 More Events for Euros

2018 SPANISH SPRING OPEN (CAMPEONATO DE ESPAÑA OPEN DE PRIMAVERA)

• Saturday, April 7th – Wednesday, April 11th
• Aquatic Center of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
• Long Course Meters (50m)
• Live Results
• Prelims start at 3:30am ET, Finals at 11:30am ET (9:30am/5:30pm in Spain)

On Day 3 of the 2018 Spanish Spring Open, Mireia Belmonte picked up another 2 automatic qualifications to the Spanish team for the European Championships in August. Belmonte achieved both the prelims and semifinals time standards in the 200 IM, and went the qualifying standard in the 1500 today bringing her Euros event total to 5 (she didn’t get both standards in the 200 fly, but as the only swimmer in the field to get one of the cuts, she automatically qualifies). Jimena Perez became the 5th swimmer to automatically qualify to the team, also coming in under the qualifying time in the 1500.

Belmonte was the fastest swimmer in both prelims and finals of the women’s 200 IM, registering at 2:12.71 and 2:12.54 respectively. She split the races almost exactly the same, going 29.12/34.75/38.48/30.36 in prelims, and 28.91/34.69/38.30/30.64 in finals. Belmonte doesn’t have any prelims swims tomorrow, and only has the 200 IM in finals, so it’s possible she’ll shed a little more time off from her 2 performances today. Belmonte has been on a bit of a plateau in the 200 IM ever since she set the Spanish Record with a 2:09.45 at the 2013 World Championships. Since then, she has not broken 2:11, with her fastest time in 2014 being 2:11.13, 2:12.18 in 2015, 2:11.88 in 2016, and 2:11.98 in 2017.

Belmonte then went on to win the 1500 with a 16:07.43, winning by 10 seconds over Jimena Perez (16:17.79), both of whom hit the automatic qualifying time for Euros. Belmonte had a great 1500 last Summer, winning Silver at the World Championships with a Spanish Record of 15:50.89. Perez shed a little over a second off her best time of 16:19.15, securing her position on the European Championship team, marking the 5th swimmer to auto-qualify to the team.

Melani Costa and Lidon Munoz del Campo battled in the women’s 200 free semifinal, with Costa taking the top seed for tomorrow with a 2:00.22 to Munoz’s 2:00.46. Costa is the National Record-holder with a 1:56.09, but her and Munoz were both well off the automatic qualifying standards (1:58.57 prelims/1:58.10 semifinals). Although they failed to auto-qualify, it’s still overwhelmingly likely they’ll both be on the roster in the 200 free at the European Champs. Esther Morillo broke the Spanish Junior Record in the 200 free, with 2 other Junior swimmers, Marta Cano and Julia Pujadas, also coming in under the previous record of 2:02.62. Morillo took nearly a full second off the record, posting a 2:01.70 to claim the 4th seed for tomorrow, while Cano and Pujadas went 2:01.81 and 2:02.59 respectively.

After putting up his 2 fastest 200 IMs ever (including a Spanish National Record) yesterday, Hugo Gonzalez fell off by quite a bit today. He swam a 1:58.85 in the prelims of the 200 back, which is a little over 2 seconds off his personal best of 1:56.69, but still isn’t too bad of a morning swim and was the fastest in the field by 2 seconds. He also achieved the prelims qualifying time by .10 seconds. However, he then went a 2:05.39 in semifinals, coming in 5th and adding almost 7 seconds from the morning. The silver lining there is that although he was way off the semifinals time standard, he was the only swimmer in the field to achieve one of the standards, and therefore will automatically make the Euro team in the event. He also gets to swim again tomorrow night, where he could try for redemption.

He then went on to win the 200 IM, but added over a second from his 1:58.03 and 1:58.05 yesterday. Gonzales finished in 1:59.35, which was still good to win by 2 seconds. He had already qualified to the Euros team in the 200 IM, so it wasn’t a very consequential swim, however, he did look very off compared to yesterday’s races.