Jessica Vall Montero Breaks Spanish Record in 200 Breaststroke

Veteran Jessica Vall Montero continued her late-blooming career arc on Friday at the 2016 European Championships by breaking the Spanish Record in the 200 meter breaststroke.

Vall swam a 2:22.56, which knocks two tenths from her own personal best and National Record of 2:22.76 that she did at last year’s World Championships. Vall joins a growing list of swimmers who are both finals contenders for the upcoming Olympics and who are still swimming best times here at the European Championships.

After stagnating from 2009-2012 without a best time, the 27-year old has now swum lifetime bests in this event when she’s been 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 years old.

Comparative Splits:

  • Spanish Record, 2015 Worlds: 32.93/36.66/37.60/35.57 = 2:22.76
  • Spanish record, 2016 Euros: 33.10/36.72/36.21/36.53 = 2:22.56

Despite racing side-by-side with the current World Record holder Rikke Moeller-Pedersen, Vall managed to control her front-end speed on her swim Friday. She ultimately wasn’t able to hang with Pedersen’s quality on the third length of the swim, Montero opened and closed as well as her opponent did.

Vall’s swim ranks her 7th in the world this year. Spain has never had an Olympic finalist in the 200 breaststroke, and until Vall’s bronze medal at last year’s World Championships, they’d never had a finalist at that meet either.

2015-2016 LCM Women 200 BREAST

RieJPN
KANETO
04/09
2.19.65
2Yulia
EFIMOVA
RUS2.21.4103/04
3Taylor
McKEOWN
AUS2.21.4504/12
4Rikke
PEDERSEN
DEN2.21.6905/20
5Jinglin
SHI
CHN2.22.2808/11
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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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