Mireia Belmonte-Garcia broke her third National Record of the meet on this final day, with a 4:05.77 win in the women’s 400 free. That crushes the old mark held by Melania Costa-Schmid at 4:07.02, and moves Belmonte to 7th in the world this year – and among a tightly-packed group of 5 in the 4:05-high range.
Costa-Schmid nearly cleared her old record as well, and swam a 4:07.08 for 2nd, and will also earn an invite to the Olympics on the basis of that time.
In her final race of the meet, the 200 fly, Belmonte was shy of another Record, but did add her 6th National Title with a 2:06.95 – seven-tenths slower than she was at last year’s Worlds Trials. That should send a big message to her that there’s no reason for her to attempt all 6 of these events at the Olympics, plus a probable berth in the 800 free relay. Without much argument, her schedule of 200/400 IM; 200/400/800 free; and 200 fly is the most difficult there is on the women’s side. The best guess is that the 200 and 400 freestyles will come off of her schedule in late July, leaving her with 4 individual events and one-or-two relays.
Belmonte-Garcia’s training partner at CN Sabadel Judit Ignacio also snuck under the FINA Automatic Qualifying Time with a 2:08.59, giving the Spaniards a second entry in this race as well.
Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak took 3rd in the 200 fly in 2:10.54.
In the women’s 200 back, Duane de Rocha broke a new Championship Record with a best time of 2:10.00.
The Spanish men didn’t add any new Olympic qualifiers on the final day of this meet, but surprisingly Aschwin Wildeboer sat out the 200 backstroke, leaving the title to Rufino Reguiera in 2:00.07. Wildeboer has basically given up on this race in the last year, even though he’s among the 10-best in history, to focus on the 100 that is probably his better medal chance anyway.
In the men’s 400 free, CN Sabadel took another 1-2 finish with Marc Sanchez taking the win in 3:56.58 and Alex Sanchez taking 2nd in 3:57.27. That’s a massive 5-second drop for the 19-year old Sanchez, so perchance he could make his way onto this squad by 2015 or 2016 with continued improvement.
Full Meet Results available here.
