Florida Junior Alfonso Mestre Cracks Venezuelan Record with 3:39.52 400 Free

2021 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
• Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• SCM (25m)
• Prize Money
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results

MEN’S 400 FREESTYLE – HEATS:

• World Record: 3:32.25 – AGNEL Yannick FRA (FRA) 15 NOV 2012
• Championship Record: 3:34.01 – RAPSYS Danas (LTU) 11 DEC 2018
• World Junior Record: 3:37.92 – SATES Matthew (RSA) 7 OCT 2021

START LIST

Top 8 Qualifiers:

1. Felix Auboeck (AUT) – 3:37.91
2. Kieran Smith (USA) – 3:38.61
3. Antonio Djakovic (SUI) – 3:39.06
4. Luc Kroon (NED) – 3:39.17
5. Max Litchfield (GBR) – 3:39.34
6. Danas Rapsys (LTU) – 3:39.38
7. Alfonso Mestre (VEN) – 3:39.52
8. Marco de Tullio (ITA) – 3:39.53

In this morning’s heats of the men’s 400 freestyle, 20-year-old Alfonso Mestre shattered the Venezuelan Record, while finishing 7th and advancing to finals. Mestre clocked a 3:39.52 this morning, and did so with a relatively aggressive race strategy. He took the race out the fastest of anyone who qualified for the final, splitting 1:48.03 on the first 200, before coming home in 1:51.49 on the 2nd 200.

With the swim, which as far as we can tell was Mestre’s first SCM 400 free, he downed the previous Venezuelan Record of 3:41.67, held by Christian Quintero. Mestre also holds the Venezuelan Records in the LCM 400 free and 800 free, with times he swam over the summer.

Mestre is a junior at the University of Florida. In addition to representing Venezuela at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Mestre is a 4x Puerto Rican National Champions, and Central America and Caribbean Games Champion.

After a tight prelims this morning, it’s anybody’s race tonight. Another big swim could land the Gator on the podium.