MADRID, 11 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men's 4×100 freestyle relay has advanced in seventh position to the final and has achieved the Olympic place virtually in the Swimming World Championships, in a first day of online swimming in which Mario Mollà has entered the 50m semifinals butterfly with the tenth best mark.
In the relay, Spain defended the Olympic place by ranking positions after being eighth in the last Fukuoka 2023 World Cup. Luis Domínguez (49.02), Sergio de Celis (48.11), Mario Mollà (48.28) and César Castro (49.30) competed in the first series and were second with a mark of 3:14.71, 2.39 behind the United States (3:12.32).
Their time earned them a place in the final this afternoon with the seventh best time among the 19 participants. Due to selection criteria -thirteen places are distributed by a joint ranking between Fukuoka 2023 and Doha 2024-, Spain would have an Olympic place in the absence of elucidating the composition of the relay, since two swimmers have yet to achieve the individual Olympic minimum.
For his part, Mario Mollà, who doubled in the morning, entered the 50 m butterfly semifinals with a mark of 23.37, which earned him the tenth best time of the heats, dominated by the Dutch Nyls Korstanje (23.02) . The one from Terrassa finished third in the sixth series behind the Americans Michael Andrew (23.03) and Shaine Casas (23.37).
Meanwhile, Carlos Quijada was twenty-ninth (3:52.86) in the 400 freestyle heats and was left out of the finals, in which neither Paula Juste, nineteenth (59.82) in the 100 butterfly, nor Carles Coll, twenty-seventh (1 :01.50) in 100 breaststroke.