The Spanish team continues to gain weight for the Fukuoka World Cup and this Thursday, at the Trofeu Ciutat de Barcelona-Mare Nostrum, has added two new members, who will also be rookies in these great championships. Arbidel González has achieved the minimum with second place in the final of the 200 butterfly and a time of 1:56.72, the third best Spanish time ever, just 33 hundredths of Carlos Peralta’s record. Earlier, in the morning session, Adrián Santos, who was competing at home, in the CN Sant Andreu pool, got the minimum in the 50 backstroke (25.16).
The Santa Olaya swimmer made his personal best in the 200 butterfly and completes his growth with his first World Cup competition. He was behind the Polish Chmielewski (1:56.26) in the test. This is one of the tests that Hugo González has in his program, who has not been able to travel to the Mare Nostrum due to visa problems to extend his stay in the United States next season and due to a bacterial condition. The Royal Swimming Federation must decide in the next few days what decision to make this season with the best swimmer in Tokyo 2021, sixth in the world in the 100 backstroke.
Apart from Arbidel González and Santos, who in his test achieved a better mark than Juan Segura (25.33), Ángela Martínez also achieved the minimum in the 1,500 freestyle. The malacitana was already classified for the Fukuoka World Championship in the 800, so now she adds a new test to her program. This mark leaves Jimena Pérez and María de Valdes out of the long-distance events, who had achieved a considerable mark in the Spanish Open but are left without options as the quota is now full with Ángela Martínez and Paula Otero, who have already been in the last World Cup in Budapest. De Valdés still has options in the open water.
Two swimmers who will lose the World Cup are the Olympic finalist Nico García, who is also training in the United States and has swum slower in Barcelona than in the Spanish Open in the 200 backstroke (1:58.91), and the incombustible Marina García, who clocked 2:27.91 in the 200 breaststroke.