By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd, 2021
- Budapest, Hungary
- Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
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- Entry List
- Live Results
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Hugo Gonzalez of Spain just threw down the race of his life en route to capturing 200m IM gold at these European Championships.
After already nailing 100m backstroke silver earlier in the session, the 22-year-old Cal Bear scorched a 200m IM mark of 1:56.76 to edge out the Swiss defending European champion Jeremy Desplanches. Desplanches touched in a super quick 1:56.95 to fall just .19 outside of gold and about half a second outside his own national record of 1:56.56 from when he took silver at the 2019 FINA World Championships.
As for Gonzalez, the man skipped entirely over the 1:57’s into 1:56, with tonight’s outing overtaking his previous career-fastest and Spanish national record of 1:58.03. That was produced in April of 2018, which means Gonzalez dropped well over a second in about 3 years, with most of the differential coming in the backstroke portion.
This super quick 1:56.76 was formed via 25.54/29.60 (55.14)/33.86/27.76 (1:01.62).
Gonzalez is now the 16th fastest 200m IM performer of all-time worldwide, as well as the 6th fastest European ever with his gold medal-worthy result.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Gonzalez Wreaks Havoc On Men’s 200 IM Field For Gold, Spanish Record