2026 SPANISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 11th – March 15th
- Sabadell, Spain
- LCM (50m)
- Recap #1
- Live Results
The penultimate night of action at the 2026 Spanish Open Championships unfolded from Sabadell with a national record bitting the dust in the women’s 100m freestyle.
First racing in the heats of the event this morning, Maria Daza ripped a time of 54.24 to take the top seed.
18-year-old Daza turned in splits of 26.30/27.94 to reap the fastest mark, overtaking the former Spanish standard of 54.33 Lidon Muñoz put on the books in 2019.
But Daza wasn’t finished, saving a little gas to slice off another .23 from her newly minted lifetie best tonight, hitting 54.01 to grab the gold and rapidly approach the 54-second barrier.
In the medal-contesting race, Daza split 26.21/27.80. That held off Italian Virginia Meniccuci, who settled for silver this evening in 54.74 followed by Spaniard Ainhoa Campabadal who rounded out the podium in 54.83.
Entering this competition, teenager Daza’s career-swiftest performance checked in at the 54.39 she clocked en route to snagging silver behind Albane Cachot of France (54.17) at the 2025 European Junior Championships.
There in Slovakia, Daza also earned silver in the 200m free (1:58.97) and led off Spain’s women’s 4x100m free relay in 54.87 to help the squad win gold.
Daza’s time of 54.01 here ranks her 12th in the world this season and pairs nicely with fellow 18-year-old Luca Hoek‘s 50m free Spanish record of 21.93 to shine the spotlight on the sprinting potential among the nation’s rising ranks.
