A week after breaking both the 50 and 100 free Mexican Records in short course meters in Tokyo, 27-year old Lili Ibanez broke them both again in Singapore to close the 2018 FINA World Cup Series.
We already covered the 50, which she broke twice to the tune of a .22-second total drop; but in Saturday’s 100, she put an even bigger dent in the record.
First with a 53.73 in prelims, and then with a 6th-place 53.19 in finals, Ibanez took a total of .74 seconds off her old record in one day. Across the two meets, she dropped 1.08 seconds from a record that she’s owned since 2009.
Comparative Splits:
| 1st 50 | 2nd 50 | Total Time | |
| Ibanez Tokyo Best | 25.78 | 28.15 | 53.93 |
| Ibanez Singapore Prelims | 25.52 | 28.21 | 53.73 |
| Ibanez Singapore Finals | 25.32 | 27.87 | 53.19 |
Sarah Sjostrom won the race in 51.13.
Ibanez will finish her season at the Mexican National Championships, though she says she’s only planning to swim the 50 free there. The meet conflicts with the World Championships, and swimmers were originally told that attendance would be required to qualify for the 2019 Pan Am Games, though the federation has since changed its stance on that.
