MADRID, 23 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Spanish swimmers Sergio de Celis, Luis Domínguez, Mario Mollà and César Castro placed sixth this Sunday in the 4×100-meter freestyle final of the World Championship, which is taking place in Fukuoka (Japan), and where Mollà himself advanced to the semifinals in the 50-meter butterfly.
Thus, the Spanish quartet of the 4×100 freestyle stopped the clock at 3:13.77 during the second of the three preliminary series, falling just four hundredths off the national record. The United States led the preliminaries, with their time of 3:11.63, while Australia placed second (3:11.64) and Team Italy was third (3:12.53).
On the other hand, Mollà won his preliminary series of the 50 butterfly making his best mark ever (23.34) and achieving a place in the ‘semis’, with the fourteenth time of the 16 classified. The Frenchman Maxime Grousset was the fastest of all the preliminaries, with a record of 22.74; British Jacob Thomas Taylor Peters, with 22.85, was second.
The Spanish Carlos Quijada also made his best mark, but in the 400-meter freestyle, stopping the clock at 3:49.60. In this same test, the fastest of the preliminaries with 3:42.44 was the Australian Samuel Short; Second was the Austrian Felix Auboeck, with 3:44.14, and third was the Brazilian Guilherme Costa, with 3:44.17.
In addition, the Spanish relay in the women’s 4×100 meter freestyle, made up of Carmen Weiler, Ainhoa Campabadal, África Zamorano and Paula Juste, had a time of 3:42.53; with this she stayed in sixteenth place in the two preliminary series, without a ticket to swim the final. The quartet finished leading (3:31.52) and the American, second (3:33.34).
In the rest of the morning participation with Spaniards, Emma Carrasco could not reach the semifinals in the 200-meter styles with her 2:15.11. Neither did Paula Juste in the butterfly hectometer, with her 59.94; and Paula Otero in the 400-meter freestyle, with her time of 4:14.63, was also eliminated by not making it among the eight finalists.