2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd
- Budapest, Hungary
- Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
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- Entry List
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Day 6 finals recap
Portugal’s Jose Paulo Lopes swam a new Portuguese Record and Olympic Qualifying Time in the men’s 800 free on Saturday, posting a 7:52.68 to finish 6th in the finals.
The swim broke his own record of 7:52.81 from prelims, which in turn demolished his own National Record of 8:02.16 done at the Portuguese Open and Youth Championships in August 2019.
He’s been in the low-8 minutes several times during the period of the global coronavirus pandemic, but this swim was a huge breakthrough, dropping almost 10 seconds from his previous best.
Comparative Splits:
| Lopes | Lopes | Lopes | |
| Previous National Record | Prelims National Record |
New National Record
|
|
| 100m | 57.41 | 57.16 | 57.21 |
| 200m | 1:00.83 | 59.93 | 59.77 |
| 300m | 1:01.36 | 1:00.21 | 59.77 |
| 400m | 1:01.45 | 59.85 | 59.87 |
| 500m | 1:00.32 | 59.15 | 59.02 |
| 600m | 1:01.21 | 59.4 | 59.53 |
| 700m | 1:01.39 | 59.41 | 59.72 |
| 800m | 58.19 | 57.7 | 57.79 |
| Final Time | 8:02.16 | 7:52.81 | 7:52.68 |
Lopes executed essentially the same race strategy as he did in his previous best times, just better: his consistent splits were more consistent, and all of his splits were faster, but they followed the same relative pattern of his previous race. That includes being sub-1 minute on each of his 8 splits – whereas in his previous Portuguese Record swim, he was only sub-minute in 2 out of his 8 splits.
Lopes’ swim undercut the FINA automatic invite standard of 7:54.31.
After the race, his coach Luis Cameira spoke of the emotion of the achievement.
“It was a huge moment,” Cameira said. “In such a difficult time, with so many limitations, Ze Paulo’s resilience was a lesson for all of us.”
The 800 is Lopes’ first swim of the meet. He’s scheduled to finish the meet on Sunday with a swim in the 400 IM where he’s the 19th seed in 4:17.99. There he’ll be chasing the FINA “A” standard of 4:15.84.
He is one of just 3 male Portuguese athletes to have hit the Olympic “A” qualifying standard so far, joining Alexis Santos and Gabriel Lopes, both of whom did so with 1:58s in the 200 IM on April 6.
On the women’s side, the newly-added Olympic event the 1500 free has proved most fruitful: two of the country’s three “A” standards among women are Diana Duraes (16:15.12) and Tamila Holub (16:15.50) in the 1500 free. Holub’s swim came this week during the prelims of the event. The other is a 2:08.40 in the 200 fly by Ana Monteiro.
José Paulo Lopes, with his amazing swim, finished 6th in the final. Also, Tamila Holub swam a 16:15.50 in the 1500 free during prelims, improving her A standard cut.