Cuban Gamez stands out today, the rest with ups and downs at 19th FINA world cup

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 20 (ACN) The best Cuban swimmer in the last two quadrenniums, Elisbet Gamez, had the most outstanding performance for Cuba in the World Championships of the International Swimming Federation in Budapest, Hungary, Monday.

In her main event, the 200-meter freestyle, the Cuban swimmer clocked 2:00.86 minutes in the qualifying heat, where she scored 816 points, the highest mark for Cuba in the swimming tournament that began on Saturday.

Gamez, who finished eighth in her heat, finished 22nd overall out of 41 contenders, according to the official FINA website.

The swimmer had a reaction of 0.64 hundredths before the starting signal and swam the 50-meter sections in 28.50, 30.33, 30.80 and 31.23 seconds, in a heat won by China's Junxuan Yang (1:56.58), ahead of Australia's Madison Wilson (1:56.85), precisely the fastest times in the entire preliminary phase.

At the same time, artistic swimmer Gabriela Alpajon scored 68.3000 points in the free routines and finished in 25th place among 29 competitors, led by the already world champion in technical routines, Japan's Yukiko Inui, who today in the solo free totaled 94.5667, followed once again by Ukraine's Martha Fiedina (92.6333) and Greece's Evangelia Platanioti (90.4000).

The Cuban performance of the day ended with Rodolfo Falcon (Jr.) finishing 26th among 32 competitors in the 800m freestyle.

For Cuba, only six divers have yet to make their debut in the World Championships, concluding on July 3.