2021 SPANISH LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 24, 2021 – Sunday, March 28, 2021
- Sabadell, Spain
- Olympic Qualification Event
- LCM (50M)
- Results / Events Page
On the final day of racing at the 2021 Spanish Long Course Championships, there are two events left in which Spanish swimmers can earn a nomination to the country’s Olympic squad this summer. As they enter the 400 freestyle and 200 breaststroke finals, the goal will be to get under the FINA A cut in order to make the team.
The FINA A cuts are as follows:
In the women’s 200 breaststroke, Marina Garcia and Laura Rodriguez are the current front-runners to join Jessica Vall in the 200 breaststroke in Tokyo. Vall has already qualified to race the event for Spain and posted a 2:29.61 in the prelims of the event.
Marina Garcia was a bit faster with a 2:29.07 while Laura Rodriguez was third in a 2:30.70. As the three go head to head, it will up to Garcia or Rodriguez to get their hand on the wall first under the cut of 2:25.52.
On the men’s side, Alex Castejon was the quickest in the prelims field with a 2:17.09, 7 seconds off the 2:10.35 standard. Joan Ballester and Jaime Morote weren’t too far off Castejon’s morning swim, posting swims of 2:19.50 and 2:19.54, respectively.
Jimena Perez has already been under the FINA A cut in both the 800 and 1500 freestyles, hitting an 8:33.17 for gold in the former and a 16:23.04 for silver in the latter. As she enters the 400 freestyle final as top seed, she will have a shot to add a third Olympic event, should she manage to get under 4:07.90. She swam a 4:15.78 in the event and it will take a decent drop from her best time of 4:14.36 to get down to the needed mark.
On the men’s side, Miguel Duran swam the fastest 400 freestyle prelim with a 3:56.27 which is 10 seconds off the Olympic selection cut of 3:46.78.
Another trio of men hit a 3:56 in the prelim as Guillem Pujol, Carlos Quijada, and Ferran Julia swam a 3:56.86, 3:56.88, and 3:56.95, respectively.
While it won’t be an Olympic qualification event, the 50 last finals event will also feature the 50 backstroke. In the prelims, Juan Francisco Segura posted the fastest time amongst the men with a 25.31 while Mireia Pradell was the fastest woman with a 28.68.
On the surface, Spanish swimming looks to be in quite a bad place. Most of the fastest heats swimmers across the meet would struggle to final in other big European countries.