The Spanish men's 4x100 freestyle, with Sergio de Celis, Luis Domínguez, Mario Mollà and César Castro, qualified for the final this Sunday with the sixth fastest time in the opening of the Fukuoka World Cup swimming events.
The Spaniards swam in 3:13.77 and fell four hundredths (3:13.73) from the Spanish record, which dates from last year's World Cup in Rome, with a quartet that also included Celis, Dominguéz and Mollà, as well as Carles Coll.
In addition, Mario Mollà was also at a great personal level, who set his personal best in the 50 butterfly (23.34), which helped him get into the final of the aforementioned test at the premiere of the swimming events of this World Cup.
The Catalan entered the semifinal with the fourteenth fastest time and lowers the mark he accredited for the classification (23.54) by two tenths, although he is far from the stratospheric record of Spain of Rafa Muñoz (22.43) that dates from 2009.
"The mark, having swum in the morning, is quite good. It is always difficult for me to start, but I have opened with a better personal mark, which is always good," he told EFE.
Mollà congratulated himself on how he competed, in some demanding series in which, for example, the Australian Cameron McEvoy or the Japanese Takashi Kawamoto were left out.
"All this gives me confidence to swim this afternoon," said the Catalan. Mollà affirmed that he has Rafa Muñoz's brand in his head "every day". "Even she is a bit far away, every day I remember her and my dream is to beat her," he said.
In the first series session, four other Spaniards participated in individual events Emma Carrasco (200 medley), Carlos Quijada (400 freestyle), Paula Juste (100 butterfly) and Paula Otero (400 freestyle), plus the two teams from the 4x100 relay.
Carrasco was twenty-second with 2:15.11, in a cut that was at 2:12.83 in the 200 styles. "At the beginning I went for everything, I went quite well in the butterfly and backstroke, but in the breaststroke I was already going quite past and in the crawl it was difficult for me. In the end, being in a World Cup series is something new for me," he said.
Carlos Quijada, who was twentieth in the 400 freestyle semifinal, was satisfied with the mark (3:49.60) and with his debut in a World Cup.
"I have managed the nerves of having swum against very fast people very well. My goal was to lower my best mark, learn, improve and I have achieved it," he explained.
Paula Juste, with 59.94, was twenty-seventh in the 100 butterfly heats, while Paula Otero was twenty-eighth in the 400 freestyle semifinals with 4:16.63.
The women's 4x100 team with Carmen Weiler, Ainhoa Campabadal, África Zamorano and Paula Yuste were sixteenth and left out of the final with a time of 3:42.53, far from the Spanish record of 3:40.46 from 2016.
