With a 1:00.99 in prelims of the women’s 100 back at the 2015 Pan Am Games, Gisela Morales blasted completely through the 1:01 second range en route to a new Guatemalan record in the 100 backstroke. Morales held the previous record at 1:02.12, and actually had two swims today under that old record. She finished 7th overall in the championship final of the 100 back in 1:01.31, which was slightly off of her morning swim, but well under her old record nonetheless.
Here’s a look at her comparative splits from prelims to finals:
Prelims: 29.53/31.46 = 1:00.99
Finals: 29.74/31.57 = 1:01.31
It seems as though Morales left nothing to chance in prelims, as she gunned for a big swim and stuck with eventual gold and bronze medalists Etiene Medeiros (BRA) and Clara Smiddy (USA), respectively, very well in heat one of the event. Should she have repeated her morning time in finals, Morales would have placed 5th in front of 200 backstroke gold medalist and Pan Am record holder Hilary Caldwell, who finished at 1:01.01 in finals.
Guatemala has done a great job thus far at these games, and this is one of four records that has been broken this week.
Two other records were shattered by Gabriela Santis. One record went down tonight, the 400 free, where Santis placed 2nd in the B final to break her own record. Read more about that swim for Santis here. Santis also took down the Guatemalan 200 free record at these games, posting a new nation’s best time of 2:03.94 on Day Two of the meet.
Valerie Gruest toppled a Guatemalan record in the 200 fly that has stood since 1986, touching at 2:13.87 in prelims, a time which she nearly improved upon in the A final. The old record of 2:18.33 was set by Blanca Morales at the Madrid World Championships. Morales was a three-time Guatemalan Olympian. Gruest is scheduled to swim in the 1st timed final of the 800 free tomorrow; she holds the national record in 8:51.18, but at the rate she’s improving, she’ll likely blow that out of the water. The 16-year-old has spent some of her youth training with Fast Lane Aquatics in Florida, though she’s shooting to represent Guatemala for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
On the men’s side, Luis Martinez, who swims for Auburn University in the U.S., lowered his own 100 fly record in both prelims and finals yesterday. Prior to the meet, the record stood at 53.56 from the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix, and Martinez was 52.90 in prelims and then 52.75 to take 8th in the A final.
