The 2015 Portuguese National meet continued today in Colmbra, Portugal, with swimmers competing in the 400m IM, 200m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle relay contests.
The first intense battle took place in the men’s 200m freestyle, where two swimmers charged to the wall in a tie for first place. Mario Pereira of Nuatico and Luis Vaz of Famalicao both finished in a time of 1:50.75, over a full second faster than the rest of the field, on their way to standing atop the podium to collect the gold medal.
In the women’s 50m breaststroke sprint, Ana Pinho Rodrigues carved out a first place finish to take the top prize in a new senior national record. Rodrigues’ time of 31.83 surpassed that of her own senior mark of 31.92 from 2010 and also now lands her within the world’s top 25 females in the event.
Former University of Louisville swimmer, Pedro Oliveira, is Portugal’s national record holder in the 200m backstroke event, holding the country’s fastest time of 1:58.83 from his performance at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Tonight, it only took Oliveira 2:00.97 to take the win in the event, adding a second backstroke victory to the 50m back sprint gold medal he earned last night. Oliveira’s winning time in the 200m distance tonight ranks him just outside the world’s top 25.
Day three of the four-day competition continues tomorrow with prelims of the 100m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle events.
