The Spanish men’s 4×100 relay team has debuted with a great performance that has earned it access to the final and a place for next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. The quartet formed by Luís Domínguez, Sergio de Celis, Mario Mollà and César Castro finished with the seventh best time (3:14.71).
The United States won the test, followed by Italy and Great Britain. The finals will start this afternoon, starting at 5 p.m. in Doha, with the participation of the eight best classified in the preliminaries.
The Spaniards, who were eighth in the last World Cup, have been seventh in the total with the posts signed by Luis Domínguez (49.02), Sergio de Celis (48.11), Mario Mollá (48.28) and César Castro (49.30) for a 3: 14.71, one second behind the Spanish record (3:13.73).
Although everything indicates that the relay has earned the right to be in the Games, it is necessary for selection criteria to have two swimmers with individual minimums in some event to be able to nominally register that relay and complete it with two other relays or that ‘World Aquatics’ makes an exception to the rule.
De Celis commented that the team was good, but he believes they can improve a lot. “Now we are going to recover and think about the final this afternoon. We are there, the rest of the teams do not have their best swimmers. We have to go without fear, because we can give a good scare to many teams,” he said.
Luis Domínguez considers that Spain’s record can be attacked. “We usually swim better in the afternoons and, seeing ourselves in the final against the big teams, we can do better,” he commented.
César Castro also has the same opinion. “We can improve. As far as I’m concerned it hasn’t gone as I expected and the important thing is that we have the Olympic place, so we have to take advantage of the motivation to play one more final, gain the experience, improve as much as possible and if We can attack the record,” he insisted.
This Sunday swimming started at the Doha World Cup. In addition to the men’s relay, four other swimmers have faced a decisive day to sneak into the finals and obtain the Olympic minimum to access the Paris Games. Of all of them, only Mario Mollà, who doubled his participation in the relay and the 50m butterfly event, has managed to qualify for the 50m butterfly semifinals (today, starting at 5 p.m.), although without reaching the Olympic minimum.
The other three participants have been eliminated on their first day. Carlos Quijada was twenty-ninth in the 400m freestyle and Carles Coll twenty-seventh in the 50m breaststroke. The Spaniard has obtained the second best mark of his career, but far from the winner, Nic Fink. In the women’s category, Paula Juste finished in nineteenth place in the 100m butterfly. She is half a second away from the semifinals, but she has not reached the Olympic minimum either.
