2016 XVII CTO. DE ESPAÑA “OPEN” ABSOLUTO DE PRIMAVERA (SPANISH OLYMPIC TRIALS)
- Saturday, March 19th – Tuesday, March 22nd
- Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain
- Prelims at 10am local/Finals at 5:30pm local
- Meet Schedule
- Psych Sheets
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Results
The 4th and final day of Spain’s Olympic Trials took place yesterday, but not before several key players on the Spanish swimming scene threw down their best in an effort to claim a spot on their nation’s Rio roster.
One name was missing from the list of the last day’s competitors, however, as superstar Mireia Belmonte was a scratch for the women’s 400m freestyle. After already having attacked and beaten her monster schedule in the form of gold medals across the 200m/400m IM, 800m/1500m freestyle and 200m butterfly events, Belmonte sat the final day out and opted not to swim the 400m free.
Belmonte had already secured her nation’s Olympic-qualifying time in the event, however, after already racking up a swift 4:07.01 in Marseilles earlier this month. That time was notched within the timeframe specified within the Spanish Olympic selection criteria, as it was registered before March 13th, the cut-off. Of note, Spanish swimmers are still able to try for Olympic cuts at the upcoming European Championships in May.
Taking advantage of Belmonte’s absence was teammate Melani Costa, who managed to wrangle in the gold and also an Olympic qualifying time. She won the event in a time of 4:07.76, just about two tenths beneath the Spanish cut of 4:07.95. Costa was the only swimmer to even approach the minimum, as she was the sole competitor of the field to clock a sub-4:10 time.
Jessica Vall was another female swimmer to collect an Olympic-qualifying time, although she powered her way to that result in the morning prelims. Vall clocked a time of 2:24.45 in the 200m breaststroke AM race to claim the top seed, but also comfortably dip beneath the minimum qualification time of 2:25.36. She followed that up with a time of 2:25.53 in the evening for the gold medal, but her prelims time counts as having possibly earned her a spot on the Rio roster.
On the men’s side, Miguel Duran followed suit by scoring an Olympic-qualifying time in the morning in the 400m freestyle. Duran’s time of 3:48.96 not only dipped beneath the minimum time for Rio of 3:49.80, it also surpassed his own Spanish National Record which stood at 3:49.76 since this same meet last year. Duran would end up with a 3:50.82 last night to still take the gold medal.
The foursome of Miguel Ortiz, Aitor Martinez, Bruno Ortiz and Oskitz Aguilar rocked a new Spanish Record in the men’s 400m freestyle relay at the end of the morning session. The squad collectively stopped the clock in a time of 3:16.77 to register a new National Record, as well as place Spain in the 14th slot of 16 worldwide relays to potentially qualify for Rio.
Splits were as follows – M. Ortiz – 49.47, Martinez – 48.98, B. Ortiz – 49.45, Aquilar – 48.87