Arbidel Gonzalez Clocks 1:54.99 200 Fly, Crushes Spanish Record By Nearly 2 Seconds

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

There were only two swimmers under 1:55 seconds in the preliminary heats of the men’s 200 fly at the 2023 World Championships. One of them was top seed Tomoru Honda of Japan, which was not a surprise. However, the second man sub-1:55 was Spain’s 20-year-old Arbidel Gonzalez, who was seeded 21st prior to the start of the meet.

Gonzalez swam a time of 1:54.99, destroying Carlos Peralta‘s Spanish record time of 1:56.42 from 2016. He also crushed his own personal best time of 1:56.76 from the Barcelona Mare Nostrum stop in May 2023.

Over the last year, Gonzalez has dropped nearly three seconds in the 200 fly. He entered 2023 with a personal best of 1:57.75 and then proceeded to lower it twice in the last two months.

Gonzalez won his heats race because of his closing speed, passing swimmers like Ilya Kharun and Chen Juner on his last 50. Compared to his previous best time, he improved significantly on his first and third 50. Gonzalez was also considerably faster than Peralta’s old Spanish record largely due to his back half.

Splits Comparison:

Arbidel Gonzalez, 2023 World Championships Arbidel Gonzalez, Mare Nostrum 2023 Carlos Peralta, 2016 European Championships (Former Spanish Record)
50m 26.32 27.22 26.29
100m 29.50 29.52 29.60
150m 29.54 30.19 30.39
200m 29.63 29.82 30.14
Total 1:54.99 1:56.75 1:56.42

If Gonzalez manages to medal in the 200 fly final, he will be the first Spanish male to land on a podium at a long course World Championships since Aschwin Wildeboer and Rafael Munoz did so in 2009.

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Miriam
1 year ago

All the best to Arbidel always and I KNOW he will continue to ‘fly’ even higher.

Sceptic
1 year ago

Congrats to Arbidel! Where does he train, who is his coach?

Itaca
Reply to  Sceptic
1 year ago

He trains at the national center “Blume” in Madrid, with Rob Greenwood

David
1 year ago

Grande Arbidel!

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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