Gabriel Araya Breaks Chilean National Record in 200 Fly Time Trial at U.S. Open

2019 U.S. OPEN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 4th-7th, 2019
• McAuley Aquatic Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia
• LCM (50m), Prelims/Finals
• Psych Sheets
• Live stream (all sessions beside A finals on Friday/Saturday)
• Live results

Chilean swimmer Gabriel Araya has broken his own National Record in the 200 meter butterfly in a time trial swim at the U.S. Open. His 2:00.42 is a new lifetime best by more than a second, breaking the 2:01.63 that he swam at last summer’s World Championships.

The 20-year old Araya has undercut this record several times in his young career, but before he began it was one of the oldest records in Chilean swimming, having stood since 1991 when Adrian Venturi swam a 2:04.79 at the 1991 Pan American Games. The time also inches Araya closer to the Olympic 2020 “B” qualifying time of 1:59.97. Chile relied on a Universality invite for its only male swimmer at the 2016 Olympic Games, Felipe Tapia, who finished 45th out of 45 finishers in the 1500 free.

In spite of the success of Kristel Kobrich, who was the 2011 Pan American Games champion in the 1500 free and is a 5-time South American Games champion, the Chilean men have not really had a serious threat in men’s swimming at the Olympic Games in the last 50 years.

Araya trains in Florida with Azura Florida Aquatics.

Other Time Trials Highlights:

• After a disqualification in prelims, Madisyn Cox time-trialed swam a 2:12.87 in a 200 IM time trial on Thursday. Her original time in the prelims was 2:11.01 before being disqualified.
• Hong Kong swimmer Camille Cheng swam a 55.00 in the women’s 100 free. That’s within two-tenths of a second of her lifetime best.
• Indiana freshman Brendan Burns swam 2:03.81 in a 200 backstroke time trial. His previous best time in that event was 2:05.49. set in January at the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville. He’s much better in that race in yards, with a best of 1:42.17.