The 2013 Bolivarian Games are a multi-discipline event comprising 575 events across 44 sports that ran from November 17th to November 20th in Lima, Peru. Among the events contested was swimming over long course meters (both fin-swimming and regular swimming), and the event ended up getting a fair number of noteworthy names in attendance, making it the biggest South American meet thus far since the World Championships.
Among the participants was Venezuelan Albert Subirats. Subirats sat out the 2013 season after a roller-coaster ride to the 2012 Olympics that saw him initially suspended for having failed to file his Whereabouts for doping controls, and then seeing that suspension lifted.
His return to competition was a successful one, as he won the 100 fly in 52.44. With most of the world entrenched into short course racing, that’s the world’s second-best time in the 100 fly since the World Championships.
Subirats also won the 50 back (25.60) and 50 fly (24.07), and added two golds as part of Venezuela’s 400 free and medley relays.
He was part of an overall Venezuelan dominance at this meet. They won 47 out of 120 total medals awarded at the meet. The biggest chunk of that was American-trained Andreina Pinto. Altogether, she took an incredible nine medals over four days of competition, which included six individual titles.
Her best swims came in the middle-to-distance freestyles. There, she won the 200 in 2:00.85, the 400 in 4:13.93, and the 800 in 8:34.05. In the latter two of those races, she out-dueled Chilean star Kristel Kobrich, who won the 1500 in 16:10.97.
USC junior Cristian Quintero also cleaned up for Venezuela. He won the 200 and 400 freestyles in 1:50.10 and 3:54.96, respectively, but fell in the 100 free. That race was won by Paraguay’s Benjamin Hockin, who was a 50.08 to Quintero’s 50.20.
Other noteworthy winners of the meet include former TCU star and Panamanian Edgar Crespo, who won the 50 breast in 28.75 before Colombian Jorge Murillo won the 100 (1:01.80) and 200 (2:14.68) meter races; and the women’s 100 and 200 backstrokes went to Carolina Colorado of Colombia, who swam winning marks of 1:02.56 and 2:18.46, respectively, in those events.
