Day 1 of the 2013 Spanish Open short course meters championship meet is in the books, and Mireia Belmonte-Garcia wasn’t the only swimmer with good results. Alongside Belmonte’s World Record breaking performance in the 1500 free on Friday morning, along with Victor Martin’s 200 free National Record, the Spaniards had a very good first day of swims, seeming to build off of the momentum from Belmonte’s recent international success; though there are still many races, especially on the men’s side, where there is much work to do.
Among the big winners included Melanie Costa-Schmid, who joined Belmonte on the World Cup circuit, with a 1:54.52 in the women’s 200 free to just miss her own Meet Record set in 2011. That race, despite being in the second session and thus far separated from the 1500 free, was absent Belmonte as she perhaps narrows her focus a hair ahead of the European Championships in mid-December.
Poland’s Konrad Czerniak won the men’s 100 fly in 51.26, which broke the Meet Record held by Carlos Rivas at 51.39. Miguel Ortiz, formerly of Michigan stardom, was 2nd in that race in 52.13.
Miguel’s younger brother Bruno Ortiz, who is a big part of the Wolverines’ NCAA title defense this year, was the runner-up in the 50 breast with a 27.83; Martin Melconian won that race in 27.24.
Judit Ignacio won the women’s 100 fly in 59.20; that puts her within shouting distance of her own National Record of 58.62, which she’ll likely break at the European Championships.
Marc Sanchez Torrens, the country’s best male distance swimmer, obliterated a 14-year old Meet Record in the men’s 1500 free by swimming a 14:40.96. That swim moves him into the world’s top 10 this year, though that’s 13 seconds behind the world leader still.
Aside from the record-breakers, maybe the biggest story on this day was Africa Zamorano Sanz. The 15-year old from C.N. St Andreu broke two National Age Records on Friday. The first came in the women’s 100 IM, where her 1:03.01 put her in 3rd place and obliterated the 2003 record of Sara Perez Sala that was a 1:04.50. Later, she swam a 1:59.95 in the 200 free to break, by a much narrower margin, Costa-Schmid’s record of 2:00.23.
The same Marc Sanchez has broken the unofficial world hour record last week in France with 5823,15 m.
Mireia is still on top. Never tired. World record in the 1500 free. She now has the 400 free/800 free and 1500 free world records in short course. Fully tapered, I think Miss Ledecky would swim around 15.10/15.12 but 15.26 is still a great time. Katie should break her 400 free and 800 free world records at Duel in the Pool in Glasgow in 3 weeks.