2024 SPANISH SPRING OPEN
We entered the fourth day of action at the 2024 Spanish Spring Open with the finals session bringing us a new Spanish National Record in the men’s 200m freestyle.
After establishing himself as the top-seeded swimmer out of the heats with a morning swim of 1:50.11, Cesar Castro fired off a time of 1:46.46 to ultimately take the gold in the final.
24-year-old Castro opened in 51.40 and closed in 55.06 to not only get to the wall first but also establish a new national standard in the process.
He held the former benchmark at 1:47.01, a time he established at this year’s World Championships. Castro produced the mark as lead-off on Spain’s men’s 4x200m free relay which placed 8th.
Individually in Doha, Castro put up a 200m free prelims time of 1:47.40 to finish 17th, one slot shy of making the semi-final.
Castro’s time tonight also overtook the previous meet record. That former threshold stood at the 1:47.33 Italian Filippo Magnini established well over a decade ago in 2009.
World Aquatics has set the Olympic Qualification Time for Paris 2024 at 1:46.26, meaning Castro is well on his way but needs to drop at least another .20 to grab the QT. He still has the Spanish Olympic Trials in June to accomplish the feat.
Of note, Carlos Benito earned the silver tonight behind Castro (1:49.53) while Giovanni Caserta of Italy bagged bronze (1:49.70). Olympic medalist Gabriele Detti, also of Italy, finished 8th in 1:51.88.
