Belmonte Collects Double Gold To Close Out Pardubice

PARDUBICE GRAND PRIX – ROUND 2

• Friday, May 17th – Sunday, May 19th
• Pardubice, Czech Republic
• Ostrava Recap
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Czech Republic 2019 World Championships & World University Games Selection Criteria
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Start List/Results
• Live Stream

Day 3 Highlights

Visiting swimmer Mireia Belmonte of Spain wrapped up her Czech Grand Prix #2 in style, reaping 2 gold medals on the final night in Pardubice. First in the women’s 400m freestyle, the Olympian clocked a winning effort. She’s been as fast as 4:09.57 from last month. As a refresher, Belmonte has only been back to training since January of this year.

The Spaniard’s 2nd victory tonight came in the 400m IM, where the 28-year-old registered a time of 4:47.78, again, not near her season-best of 4:36.09 from April’s Spanish Nationals, but enough to wind up on top here in Pardubice.

Another non-Czech swimmer in the form of Sebastian Sabo got the job done across 2 events, as the man who holds dual citizenship in both Hungary and Serbia won the 100m fly and 100m free tonight. Representing Hungary at this Grand Prix, Sabo produced a time of 53.81 to win the former event and 50.45 in the latter.

For the women’s 100m free it was Anna Kolarova who notched the winning time, clocking 56.47 to hold off visiting Hungarian Zsuzsanna Jakabos. Jakabos hit the wall less than half a second later in 56.90 after already clearing the women’s 100m fly field earlier in the session with a winning mark of 59.45, the only time under the minute threshold.

Only 1 Czech swimmer produced a World Championships-worthy swim tonight and it came from Olympian Simona Kubova. The backstroking ace wrapped up her Pardubice campaign with a time of 1:00.35 to win the 100m back sprint, easily dipping under the 1:01.20 QT set by the Czech Swimming Federation.