Although Hugo González trained in the United States (this course was graduated from the University of Berkeley, Los Angeles) and do not lavish too much on the media as Mireia Belmonte did at the time through her commercial agreements, the Mallorcan (1999) is the best Spanish swimmer of the last four years and the strongest candidate to fight for medals at the Paris Games. Already in Tokyo, two years ago, managed to swim the final of the 100 backstrokein which he finished sixth, and now in these Fukuoka Swimming World Championships he has started on the right foot. “I see Hugo very well”, explained one of his teammates these days in the previous concentration in Yamaguchi for the dispute of this competition.
With 53.70, a mark one second higher than his best record, the swimmer based in Rivas achieved the ninth best mark in the heats and this afternoon (from 1:00 p.m., RTVE Play) He will try to find a place in the final. Of the eight swimmers who finished in a better position than Hugo, the Spaniard was the third fastest to come back, with that ability to swim negatively and his good finish in the 100 backstroke, a test in which he won silver at the 2021 European Championships in Budapest. The best mark was established by the Chinese Jiauyu Xu, with 52.87.
Jessica Vall, who is facing her sixth World Championships, failed to advance to the semifinals, who stayed in 28th position in an excessively expensive 100 breaststroke, where the first 16 fell under 1:07. The CN Sant Andreu swimmer, who focuses mainly on the 4×100 medley relay on the last day, finished at 1:08.64. If Vall is already a veteran, for Carmen Weiler these are her first World Cups. The swimmer who shone the most at the Nacional de Palma in spring, she was 21st in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.87, far from her best mark of 59.76. Precisely the cut was established by the Dutch Kira Toussaint with 1:00.46, who was beaten by the Valencian at the Spanish Open.
The same fate suffered Luis Domínguez, protagonist in the first day of the 4×100 freestyle relay that was eighth in the world, but who now could not repeat the same fate in the 200 freestyle, finishing 34th with 1:49.28 (a test in which Spain is far from the world semifinalist positions) and the swimmers of the 1,500 freestyle, a test dominated with Katie Ledecky for one more edition. Paula Otero suffered in her series and finished, in what are her second World Cups, with 16.38.73, and Ángela Martínez, who shared a test with the American and marked 16:24.38.
Meilutyte flies in the 100 breaststroke and Popovici debuts
The rest of the second day of qualifying left a name of its own, above even phenomena like Katie Ledecky or David Popovici, who debuted in the World Cups with the third best mark in the 200 free (1:45.86). Ruta Meilutyte, the Lithuanian Olympic champion at the London 2012 Games who had to give up swimming in 2018 due to depression, came close to the world record in the 100 breaststroke. The 26-year-old swimmer trained in England swam without reservation, who left the mark of the American Lilly King (1:04.67) trembling.
Together with the Lithuanian, who aspires to another gold in the Olympic event 11 years later, Katie Ledecky, silver on the first day in the 400 free, takes position as the great favorite for gold in the 1,500 free with 15:41.22, with 14 seconds ahead of the Italian Simona Quadarella. There are 25-kilometre open water races, a modality now in disuse, which are decided in less time.