The 2015 Portuguese Open Nationals began today from the Olympic Center in Coimbra. With the Portuguese World Championships squad already set, including Diogo Carvalho, Alexis Santos, Nuno Quintanilha, Ana Catarina Monteiro and Victoria Kaminskaya representing their country in Kazan, swimmers will be taking to the pool at this meet vying for national records, European Championships cuts and Olympic time standards.
As an Open Meet, in addition to Portuguese teams, swimmers have gathered from such countries as Spain, Armenia, France, Ireland and Great Britain. An estimated 692 swimmers from 113 total clubs are slated to compete in Coimbra, with the meet spanning July 23rd through July 26th.
A monumental event highlighted the evening, with 36-year old Simao Morgado swimming the very last individual race of his storied Portuguese career. Captain of the national team, Morgado is the only swimmer from Portugal to have swum in four Olympic Games. Throughout his career, as a member of Clube de Nataçao de Amadora, Morgado has held the 100m butterfly national record a total of 13 times. Morgado’s highest international finish was the 6th place he earned at the 2004 European Championships and he still holds his nation’s 50m butterfly record. Tonight, Morgado, whose father is the former President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, won the 50m fly event in a time of 24.78 to close out his career in gold medal fashion.
Another eye-catching swim came from the women’s side, where the Clube de Porto saw its 4 x 200m freestyle relay squad crank out a new national youth record during timed finals in the morning session. Maria Cabral, Maria Costa, Isabel Pego and Ana Faria combined to score a new mark of 8:46.61, taking down the old relay record of 8:50.03 that was registered by the same club just earlier this month.
Additional Key Victories from Day 1:
- Anton Ipsen from Denmark clinched the win in the men’s 1500m freestyle in a time of 15:25.68, his fastest clocking in the event thus far this year.
- Another Dane won the women’s 800m freestyle event, with Julie Lauridsen touching the wall first in a time of 8:49.28, just off her 8:48.91 time she registered at the Danish Open back in March.
- Ana Rodrigues won the women’s 100m breaststroke event by 3 seconds over the rest of the field, racking in the win in a time of 1:09.56. Rodrigues holds Portugal’s national record in the event in a time of 1:08.82, a time she earned just two months ago.
Prelims continue tomorrow at 9am local time.