Hugo Gonzalez Among Spanish Olympians Racing at Spanish Open This Week

2021 Spanish Summer Open & Junior Championships

• August 3-8, 2021
• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Start Lists & Meet site
• Results

The Spanish Summer Open & Junior Championships kicked off on Tuesday on the island of Gran Canaria. While most of Spain’s Olympic team is still making its way back from Tokyo, or recovering after those Games, at least one members has jumped right back into racing: Hugo Gonzalez.

Last week in Tokyo, Gonzalez was only of only 3 members of an 11-member Spanish team to advance to a final. He ultimately placed 6th in the 100 backstroke in 52.78 and 11th in the 200 IM.

Often we see swimmers take on alternate events at these post-Olympic national championship meets to get times on at least an extended taper, but Gonzalez jumped right back in to the 100 back. In the A final, he swam 53.93, which is a new Championship Record in the event. The swim cleared the old record of 54.64 done by Aschwin Wildeboer in 2013.

The time was just over a second slower than the 52.78 that he swam in the Olympic final.

Gonzalez also picked up a win in the 50 back in 25.36. His best time in that race is the national record of 24.47 set in May.

Gonzalez’s return, which included a 1:50.77 leadoff leg on their 800 free relay, has helped his Real Canoe club stay in the top 5 of the team standings.

Team Standings After Day 2:

1. CN Sabadell – 151
2. CD Gredos San Diego – 147
3. CE Mediterrani – 126
4. CN Terrassa – 122.5
5. Real Canoe NC – 111

He wasn’t the only Olympian to make the trip back to race at the meet. Lidon Munoz, the country’s star female sprinter, returned as well, racing, and winning, the 50 free in 25.27 on Wednesday. That’s almost as fast as the 25.10 that she swam to finish 23rd in prelims in Tokyo.

She also swam the 100 free at the Olympics, placing 27th in 54.97.

Both swimmers were arguably out-shined by a non-Olympian, however. CN Sabadell’s Catalina Corro won the women’s 400 IM in 4:39.35.  That is her best time since going a 4:38 in the summer of 2018 and is the 4th best time of her career at any meet.

That swim was still just short of the Olympic “A” standard, so even if she had done the swim earlier in the season, she would not have qualified to join Mireia Belmonte, who was 4th at the Olympics, in the event – to enter two swimmers in an event at the Olympics, both must have the Olympic “A” standard.

Her previous best time of the year was 4:42.60 set in March.

Other Highlight Swims from Days 1&2

• French swimmer Analia Pigree won the women’s 100 backstroke in a new Meet Record of 1:00.46, beating out returning-Olympian Africa Zamora (1:01.65). Pigree’s swim breaks the Meet Record of 1:01.32 that was set in 2014 by Duane da Rocha. That swim for Pigree was just shy of her lifetime best of 1:00.50 from June. She was one of a few French swimmers in attendance – 18-year old Lison Nowaczyk finished 2nd in the 50 free.
• Pigree broke another Meet Record in the women’s 50 back, finishing in 27.39. She actually broke the record in prelims as well (27.65).
• Carles Coll Marti won the men’s 50 free in 22.47, just beating out the French duo of Guillaume Guth (22.52) and Nikita Baez (22.72), who finished 2nd and 3rd.
• Alberto Lozano just-missed the Meet Record in the men’s 50 fly, swimming 23.78 off Rafael Munoz’s mark of 23.58. Munoz is the former World Record holder in the event.
• Maria Ramos Najji swam 31.48 in the women’s 50 breaststroke, beating out returning Tokyo Olympian Marina Garcia (32.04). In the process, Najji broke the Spanish Age Record for 15-year olds that was set by Garcia in 2009 with a time of 31.78.