The Portuguese swimmer Diogo Ribeiro, 18, reached the final of the 50-meter butterfly at the Fukuoka World Championship this Sunday, with the seventh best time in the semifinals of the distance.
The historic feat of the young man, world junior distance record holder, was achieved with a time of 23.04 seconds, better than in the qualifiers but below the 22.96 he achieved in Lima, Peru, in 2022, when he was proclaimed junior world champion.
The Frenchman Maxime Grousset, runner-up in Europe, dominated again, as he had already done in the qualifying rounds, and set 22.72, the best time in the ‘little socks’, with the Portuguese as the only qualifier for the final who swam above 23.
The Benfica athlete makes his debut in the senior World Cups and immediately achieves a historic feat, a rare appearance in a World Cup final, after having achieved another at the European Championships in Rome in 2022.
The bronze in the same 50 butterfly, that year, was only the third podium for Portuguese swimming in Europe, after Alexandre Yokochi, another finalist in the World Championships, bronze in Sofia 1985 (200 backstroke), and Alexis Santos, in London 2016 (200 IM).
The final is scheduled for 12:46 on Monday in Lisbon, at 20:46 in Japan.
In the same distance, still in the heats, Miguel Nascimento swam in 23.95 seconds, the 42nd best mark, without being able to advance to the semifinals.
The two swimmers are already classified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, in other distances, since the 50 butterfly are not part of the Olympic program.
In the 100-meter breaststroke, Gabriel Lopes was four hundredths of the personal record, registering 1.01.69 minutes, and failed to advance from the heats, with the 32nd best time among 70 swimmers, still far from the national record, set since 2013 at 1.01.01 by Carlos Almeida.
In the early hours of Monday, five more Portuguese will take part: Tamila Holub and Diana Durães, in the 1,500-meter freestyle, Camila Rebelo, in the 100-meter backstroke, Ana Pinho Rodrigues, in the 100-meter breaststroke, and João Costas, in the 100-meter backstroke.
The Swimming World Cup runs until next Sunday, July 30 in Fukuoka, Japan.
Source: TSF
