MADRID, 24 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish swimmer Hugo González could not get into the final of the 100-meter backstroke of the Fukuoka 2023 World Swimming Championships (Japan) by finishing eleventh in the semifinal of the event, on a bad day for the Spanish delegation, with Jessica Vall out of ‘semis’ in the women’s 100 breaststroke.
With a time of 53.38, Hugo González was fifth for the second lane in his semifinal, the second. But, in the overall of the two sleeves, the Spaniard was eleventh and was three places away from being able to get into the final that the best 8 of the moment will swim, with the Italian Thomas Ceccon (52.16) in front.
In his debut in the Fukuoka pool, Hugo González – Tokyo 2020 Olympic finalist and European champion in Budapest 2021 – got into the ‘semis’ well but fell short, just 17 hundredths, from being able to swim the final.
The day did not go well, either, for the rest of the Spaniards. Luis Domínguez was 34th in the 200-meter freestyle series and paid dearly for his presence in the 4×100 double relay that he did with the Spanish team, going from more to less in the test and staying out of the semifinals.
The swimmer Carmen Weiler was not able to progress in the backstroke hectometre either and with 1.00.87 she was 41 hundredths away from the pass to ‘semis’. In the long distance of the 1,500 freestyle, the two Spaniards who came from open water were left with honey on their lips, especially Ángela Martínez (16:24.38), fifteenth, and less Paula Otero, 23rd.
The veteran Jessica Vall, in her sixth consecutive World Championships, was left out in the 100 breaststroke series with a time of 1:08.64, far from the 1:06.87 that marked the pass to the semifinals, with 12 lost places in between.